The March Hare: Fall 2007 Issue 54

Cover Page • Gaining Perspective • Liat Silverman's Bio • Status Report • Nature Corner • A Poem • Hopper's Index

Nature Corner

by Rachel Katz

Looking back at the last ten years, the village has changed immensely. But if you look past the village, there have been changes afoot on the land as well, even if they are a little less obvious.

One of the most apparent changes has been the trees. We have more trees and they are bigger. And its not just that we've planted 11,000, either. They manage to take root on their own, too. Between the tree plantings and natural regrowth, Mullein Hill has gone from an open hilltop to early successional forest. The diversity of trees is higher because we have been choosing to plant trees that were under represented or didn't exist at all on our land, like redbud, sycamore and a variety of oaks. And with the increase of trees, we've seen an increase in squirrels. Seeing a squirrel in the village is still a notable event, but out on the land they have become more common.

Of course, most of our land was early successional forest until the word came down that in order to keep our land in the Conservation Reserve Program, a soil and habitat protection program that helps us pay our mortgage, we needed to remove the trees and mow a whole bunch of it. It was a sad time, but we did end up mowing quite a bit of it. The areas we planted trees in were protected and we decided to keep out a few other key spots that had a particularly nice stand of trees, like Mullein Hill. And it's actually a good thing to open up portions of our land again. Grassland that is undisturbed by agriculture is rare and we provide vital habitat to grassland and shrubland animals.

Turtle meets community building

In fact, there are some areas we have been maintaining specifically for prairie-loving wildlife. When we moved here, there were just a few spots that had remnants of prairie grasses and wildflowers that had survived tillage. We planted 20 acres in a mix of grasses and forbs. The grasses especially thrived in those areas and all fall and winter those fields are a striking golden orange that stand out from the rest of the land.

Another noticeable change is that many gullies have gotten deeper. Some gullies I used to be able to jump across are now deep enough for me to stand in and not be able to see out. However, we have been putting in check dams and amending the soil so plants can grow, and some areas that used to be raw earth before are now covered with vegetation.

Perhaps the most apparent change in topography is the new pond. After many years of discussion, we decided to put a large pond in at the top of Dead Car Draw. This is mostly to provide aquatic recreational opportunities as we begin to outgrow our swimming pond. It was built just above one of the faster growing gullies, at the head of Dead Car Draw, and will at least prevent that headcut from moving up the hill. The finishing touches are still being put on it, so it's difficult to say what effects this will have on the wildlife and the land.

On the whole it is easier to survey the land to see these changes than it was when we first arrived. Ted mows a footpath around the land every year (which becomes a cross country ski path in the winter) and we maintain a bridge over the creek.

Some things don't seem to change much at all, despite all of our changes. We have been noticing a snapping turtle migrate between our ponds each year. As new buildings get built on its path, it takes a more circuitous route, but it still manages to make its journey. We still find salamanders in our mulch and red tailed hawks still dominate the winter sky.

Cover Page • Gaining Perspective • Liat Silverman's Bio • Status Report • Nature Corner • A Poem • Hopper's Index

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