[To see photos and stories of the savanna in other years, see the links on the main Twisted Oak Savanna page.]
This was a big year for the savanna. We started work at the northern end of the cleared area, along the path. I planned to just clear out a tangle of honeysuckle and buckthorn that had been bothering me for a while. It turned out to be more a extensive tangle than we thought, and once we got it out, we realized that there was more savanna behind it – many more huge old twisted Burr Oaks. So we kept going, and cleared an area nearly as large as our original savanna area.
We also decided that the savanna is now large enough and distinctive enough to have its own name. (It used to be part of Indian Grass Point.) So we’re calling it Twisted Oak Savanna.
We started our new clearing project on October 11, and continued until the snow got too deep to work.
2/11/2017
2/11/2017
2/20/2017
4/17/2017
4/17/2017 Looking up east and south from Ragwort Opening – into the main part of the savanna
4/17/2017
4/17/2017
5/28/2017
6/19/2017
6/25/2017
7/22/2017
8/30/2017
8/30/2017
10/16/2017
10/28/2017
10/11/2017 This is the ‘before’ photo of the area we worked on this fall. This is the tangle of honeysuckle and buckthorn I was trying to get rid of – between the path and Ragwort Opening.
10/17/2017 The first step was clearing around the piles of fallen logs.
10/18/2017
10/19/2017
10/26/2017
10/28/2017 Once the fallen logs were exposed, and the bushes behind them removed, we could see the big oaks behind them.
10/28/2017
11/9/2017 Now we could really see the savanna beyond the logs.
11/21/2017 Working in the new savanna area
11/26/2017
11/26/2017
11/27/2017 This is looking from the new savanna area, back into the older cleared area.
11/27/2017 Newly ‘liberated’ oaks
12/7/2017 Another view from the newly cleared area into the older one. This was the end of the project for this year. The weather got colder, and we had more snow. The rest will wait for another year.
12/18/2017
12/29/2017
