"The Deer Exclosure"

This is what the sign says: "DEER EXCLOSURE Built to allow Biologist and Botanist to study the effects that Whitetail deer and Moose have on plant life. Eagle Scout project built by Troop 8 scouts 2006 1/10th Acre

If one wanders about in the Bangor City Forest, exploring the less traveled trails, one can find many interesting things. Some of them Mind-boggling indeed. At one point a few years back, the city had backhoes and dump trucks and things out by the little tree farm near the pond and by the stone fence entrance to the Quinn Trail. They removed many stones from the gorgeous stone fence that had probably been there for ages, and began tearing and cutting down trees... cutting out a swath of a space in the forest as if they were going to build a road. They never did... however, after the construction or destruction (depends on how you look at it) was done, we went to see what the heck the city had done. I want to share with you what we found...

The damage done here was not done by deer of even moose, but by humans. I remember the first time we saw this deer exclosure, there were trees standing inside the exclosure. There was more shade surrounding the exclosure as well. As you can see there are no more trees in the exclosure. In fact, there were piles of trees and brush everywhere that had been cut down and cropped off, blocking trails, and cluttering up the surrounding area... including one of the original trails of the forest.

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My conclusion to this Deer Exclosure project is as follows: The plant life inside the deer exclosure seemed to decrease in density, but stayed much the same except for the damage done by humans. Humans have damaged the area plant life to the extreme by not only cutting surrounding foliage down, but also by removing foliage from inside the pen as well. They cut a driveway sized path into the forest to create this exclosure when a simple path would have sufficed. Humans also destroyed an ancient stone fence in order to make this road to provide easier (to humans) access into the exclosure.

Whether this project was actually created and built by the Eagle Scouts as mentioned on the sign, I may never know. I have never actually seen anyone walk down this way. I do know that if the scouts did indeed create and build this project that it was probably with help from city workers, who are also responsible for other natural disasters. They like to line the road trails with debree from seasonal road sweeping, apparent by large rocks of road pavement, cell phone parts, and many other garbage items that no one entering the forest for recreational use would ever carry in with them.

Many pictures you will see in this blog are of all the things of nature that catch my eye here in the City Forest. This is one thing that caught my eye in another way, and I felt like I needed to record this as well.

Look forward to more nature shots!