Managing the Woods, Part 1

It’s officially fall at Badgerton, which means we are shifting gears from prairie planting to woodland restoration. While enjoying a family camping trip with my brother-in-law Andy’s family, we squeezed in some important prep work for our upcoming forestry mowing. This trip had some big ups and some big downs. I captured some truly gorgeous sunrises, but also crashed my camera drone while doing so - getting it stuck 30 feet in the air! While flagging for the mower, we took a trek through some dense, thorn-filled brush in what we called the “worst hike ever” and that was the name it got before I broke out in one of the worst cases of poison ivy I’ve ever had. Ugh. But the ups made it all worthwhile: the fairy farmers market the kids built from flowers and supplies found in the prairie and woodlands (inspired by videos from Mary in the Fairyland), the campfire charades, and the kids’ close encounter with a stick bug are all memories I’ll treasure for a lifetime. While we got the essential prep work done in the woods, we didn’t find any young oaks in the flagged zone which could cause issues with our restoration plans. Though we only really looked around the perimeter. We’re going to connect with our ecologists in the coming weeks to decide if we need to corse correct. We should have a more in-depth update in a few weeks with more details on the forestry mowing and what we end up deciding to do. Be sure to subscribe to our Substack for a more detailed article on the forestry mowing decision: https://substack.com/@badgerton All music in the video from the amazing Medusa Quartet. https://medusaquartet.com/