Day 321

Seeing the land through the process of being restored is something both humans and animals can enjoy. However, because of a large number of dead ash trees, we haven't been able to access certain areas in desperate need of restoration.

Until now.

Due to some extreme generosity from the community along with all the free wood they can handle, all but a handful of the trees were leveled. While there's still some cleanup and a few more trees to take down, the land is in a much better spot to start treatments in spring. Currently, it has plenty of reed canary grass that hasn't been able to get treated because of the trees. Before we can start treating, we still have some work to do.

There are a number of stumps that need to be brought down closer to the ground so that our restoration partner doesn't destroy his tractor in the process of treating the grass. There are a number of brush piles that need to be removed. There are also some larger branches and limbs that need to be bucked up and removed. Because the land gets squishier in the fall, most of the remaining cleanup will be once the ground is frozen.

Though we still have time to make the final decisions, we have options for what we want to do with this area once it is in better shape. As with every decision we end up needing to make, we have options.

We could just see what pops up naturally. For a large chunk of the other areas already being treated, lots of native plants have already taken over. Under the aggressive and invasive grass was a bank of dormant native seed. Remove the grass and wake up the seeds. This could happen again.

We could also consider putting in a wetland scrape. This area is usually one of the wetter spots on the land so adding a more permanent weather feature might make great sense and could be a potentially easier project.

We could also start the process of adding trees and starting the reforestation restoration.

I’m not sure what we will do, but I can't wait to find out.