Close to the end of 2021, Woodchuck and I went out to the land for a quick walk and we decided to try to get out on to the Watershed Preserve. I knew I could get out there, as I had done it recently, though just stayed on the edge of it, but I didn't know if he wanted to tackle it. He did! And I am glad we made the trek.
I constantly get the feeling that someone has been on our land. In the woods, on the land itself, all over. But I have never been able to find hard proof. Until this trip. Almost immediately after getting on to the preserve, we ran into the Aspens that I had been wanting him to see. Young trees yet, but still lovely!
I took a right, the way I did last time I was out there showing my oldest son around, to get closer to the watershed pond and not too far in found truck tire tracks. Hubby dismissed it, saying that they must be old. But I had that feeling. That spidey sense feeling. That feeling that someone had been on our land, and I trust that feeling. Not finding any proof changed this time.
As I walked around the pond, I tried getting pictures of the phragmite, and to find a way to get closer to them. Seems I will need to wear my waders next time and come up from the other side of the pond. We walked farther and I began to notice broken branches and plants. Ohhh, someone has absolutely been here. This isn't from wildlife. And there it was, spread out over a large area. Flattened native grass (this happens naturally too over the Winter, but the rest of the preserve was still standing at this time), garbage, and deer bone and antler galore. I dropped some intense cuss words, though that's nothing out of the norm for me, and I was pissed that someone dare to come on to our land without permission AND not even bother cleaning up after themselves.
Pictured above: a plastic piece of a decoy and a metal can that had been shot at and mangled up.
Pictures above: one area of flattened grass. There were several all around the same area.
Above: more flattened grass, another shot up and mangled can, and one of the pink flags that the DNR recently put out to mark the ingress/egress to the watershed. However, there are no pink flags ON the watershed, and this tells me that they were all over the property or at least farther out than just on the watershed, and on the opposite side than where the tire tracks were found.
Above: and then I started finding the bones. Lots of bones strewn around. Possible eventually utilized and moved around by a scavenger, but considering they were right where we found evidence of humans, I'm going to say that they had something to do with them being out there in the first place. We were completely unprepared to find any of this out there, but we grabbed what we could, because being a Nature artist and deeply connected with wildlife, I will honor the life of this creature.
Above: a can of Scotchguard. This tells me that they were possibly camping, given the large area of flattened grass. To say I was infuriated would be an understatement. Again, take your shit out with you, don't leave it.
We had to leave some of them, there were so many. But we will be back, and soon, to finish picking up what was left behind, to look farther out than where we did this time, and to start placing signage. Signage that we had to buy ourselves, because even though the DNR said they would provide those for us, when I contacted them to request them again, they said to try trail cams. Note taken. Now I know who I'm dealing with in them as well. Tell us everything you can do to help us when we are buying the land and then not follow through. Fabulous. Whomever goes out on to any of our land without permission had better hope that they get caught by hubby and not myself. I won't wait to see if they are going to be nice about being told not to come back, they should not have been there in the first place. Even the previous owner said he didn't allow anyone to hunt or to be on the land, so they can't use that excuse. We want that land to be a safe haven for wildlife, and for us. Trespassers will be met by a 5 foot tall fire breathing nature witch, with a dragon and all of her ancestors as her guide. Stay the hell off my land.
