New Stomping Grounds

During a jog about a month ago, I noticed a small parking lot newly cut into a patch of woods along my road. A sign near its entrance announced that those woods were now part of the Washtenaw County Natural Area Preservation system. Hot damn, I thought. Another place to wander, and a just short walk from home at that. Weather and assorted busyness kept me from getting there since, but with MLK day off and not too much to prepare for tomorrow, I squeezed in a visit after lunch today.

Just in from the parking lot lies a widely strewn, semi-picturesque, collection of refuse.



It's a blight on the land, yes, but when I was a kid it excited me to happen on stuff like this in the woods--not just trash, but shells of old cars, strange implements or appliances, or remnants of buildings. Stories suggested by these finds intrigued me almost as much as most of the natural features I encountered. Now, when I see something like this my initial reaction is disgust, though that often gives way to curiosities about how, when, and why the junk landed there. I wouldn't want to see many of these heaps around the forest, but one or two add historic blushes to the unscenic matter of factness of trees, earth, snow.

Two hundred feet into the woods the trash leaves off and one's attention focuses on a standard collection of southeast Michigan hardwoods: oak, hickory, hawthorn, dogwood, basswood, probably others I'll recognize once trees go into leaf. Shagbark hickories seem more common here than in other local woodlots.


There is, on the other hand, a pronounced absence of pink honeysuckle. This pernicious non-native has clotted many local forest areas, but here they're restricted to the area near the junkpiles---an interesting coincidence. I'll be watching to see if they spread as the area receives more visitors, who unawares may carry seeds into the preserve.

A small creek winds through the woods, emptying into a sizeable wetland.


I trekked into the preserve for nearly half an hour (including stops for pictures) and didn't hit a fence, which tells me it's larger than the forest park (80 acres) directly opposite my house. So for at least the next few outings there, I will find there not just a place but a project; a space not only to walk and see, but to learn and map.