Describe the park or patch of untended nature closest to your home and what kind of park it is. (minimum 100 words)
The closest untended patch of nature to me is my back-yard, or along the edge of it. Behind my house is an undeveloped set of acreage probably a square-mile in size with gentle rolling hills and large boulders which are common for this area. There is a small house that rents a very small parcel of it about a half-mile back, but the whole of the acreage is owned by a development company.
The way I’ve come to understand it, developers bought the land back in the 80’s to develop, but the township has yet to give them permission to create a driveway onto any of the surrounding roads. They own an easement onto my property as of 1982 and 1985 (they purchased two separate ones), but nothing has been done with it since.
So there it lies, full of song-birds, deer, wild turkey’s, and barred owls among a mix of other critters. It is densely populated with foliage, black walnut, oaks, white birch, maples, and various other indigenous trees. My father and I have created several paths throughout there, and are currently encouraging the turkey population to come closer with gifts of cracked corn, and rotten fruit for the deer.
The divider between that property and my own is a narrow unnamed stream that feeds into Rock Creek below. If I ever get the money, I wouldn’t mind purchasing all of the woods back there and create my own little Gettysburg haven of wilderness. Right now it serves its purpose as my wild spot.
In general, this patch of land that I am on, and the land behind me was all once part of the encampment that surrounded the confederate military hospital two doors up. When dad and I plowed our garden last year, we found a rusted horseshoe, so I can only imagine back in the 1860’s, these woods were also used as cover and rest for their wounded.
(Word Count: 321)
