Old Milwaukee Old Trash

 

While I was wondering through the southern tract earlier this week in a fruitless search for the emergence of Ghost Pipes, I found something else.

\It was a faded aluminum beer can that bore the Old Milwaukee logo.

I find odd single cans like that occasionally.

I also found the head of doll. I have no idea of its origin or provenance.

Later on, I discovered someone had cut the fence on the northern boundary where land has been cleared but never developed a year or so ago.

I came out later to repair the fence and to put the FWC boundary sign on the right side of  the fence and picked some additional trash.

I will check again on the Ghost Pipes later. A wet winter is predicted and that seems to bring them out.

 

FWC Meeting Today Was Encouraging

 I had a cordial meeting today with some FWC staff folks to discuss management issues affecting the Scrub Lupine restoration project.

The takeaways I got was that they would no longer send equipment down the path next the first planting area, would agree to conduct some temporary trimming to reduce the canopy overgrowth in some of the planting areas and will plan a more extensive removal and herbiciding of overgrowth within the next year as the budget allows.

They also said they would like to burn the site again and asked how that would affect the lupines. I referred them to Cheryl Peterson at Bok Jack Stout at UCF, who are much better informed than I am.  

I also briefly mentioned the trash pile near the southwest gate and tree fall along the fence lines.

I also reported recent hog damage and told them that there was probably a lot of background info they might find useful on the site's chronology on this blog.

Hog Damage Is More Extensive

 

While I was out checking trails today, I found a patch of extensive hog rooting along a section of the western fire lane.

The mystery is how the animals are getting in since the new fencing installed a few years ago seems to be a better barrier than strands of barbed wire.

In addition to this, in fire lanes in the scrub areas. there are a lot small excavations that look like maybe exploratory though whether hogs or some other animal is responsible is a mystery. I have never seen anything like it.

One more thing to discuss at next week's meeting with FWC folks.

   

Fall Discovery, Hogs & Orchids

 I was walking the trails today to discover traces of litter such as pieces of broken glass, metal and plastic from the site's heritage as a dump site.

I  also found some abandoned shell  casings from earlier hunting expeditions and fresher evidence of the need for a hunt.

Most of it was in the small bayhead in the southwest corner of the north tract.

There was obvious hog damage among the Cinnamon Ferns.

But there was more. The orchids are beginning to emerge and  I found a previously undiscovered  fruiting Dahoon Holly after all of  these years here. 

It was a successful expedition.