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| Among the Ferns and Oaks |
The woods belong to someone else. It was once an old farm...there is a cellar hole near the upper road. . I use these old roads on my walks. The trails aren't "posted," so I hope the owner doesn't mind my being there. Criss crossing the area are a maze of animal trails, and sometimes I will follow the fresh animal tracks, and set up my Trail Camera on one that looks especially well traveled. I notice this year, for the first time, that the hemlock trees are showing the effects of an infestation of the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid. They are dropping needles at an alarming rate, and the older hemlocks are breaking off about 20 feet up the trunk. The woodland floor is littered with dead trees and branches. The Beech trees in the same area are also stressed, and the tops are breaking off in heavy winds.
I can't begin to imagine what these woods will look like in three or four years.
