I think I will contact the Ottawa tribe and see if they have a historian who can come out and verify the site.
That'll be the end of my campground plans.
There are mounds I believe.
Someone told me those are because this is flood plain here.
I don't know.
I read a bit today about telling the difference between naturally chipped and man chipped material.
80% of the stuff I keep finding along the driveway are man manipulated.
Thanks for the information.
As for zoning, everyone around here has some sort of farm animal.
The county is unzoned and the township.
I love it here.
I need to get it back to pre-tornado condition.
Still losing trees every time we get a day with 30mph+ wind.
Lost another 20 trees or so in the last week.
Don't know about the back half..too hard to get through the center of the property.
The whole center came down.
Which is actually fine by us as we wanted space for a large food plot and some of the biggest trees out there were very, very large rotting out Poplar trees...aka gopher wood..😂
They came down and took everything else around them out in domino fashion.
I bet the neighbor is regretting not helping me remove them when I asked for his help with them.
If he had, he wouldn't have lost very many trees as our trees knocked down by wind and the big dead trees are what caused his trees to come down.
It sucks.
For all of us in this area.
It sucks for the miles of state forest it flattened.
It really sucked for the wildlife!
The loss of wildlife must have been quite high.
Didn't hear any barred owls all the rest of last fall and winter.
No turkeys were seen after.
The Pilated woodpeckers took it hard.
Down to 2 sets around our house.
40 or more before the tornado.
It makes me sad.
Next year will be more telling.
Nature has it's ways.
Sunlight through former canopy will boost second growth greatly!
All that debris on the ground is structure. Cover for critters , including deer if they need security.
Much of the wood will decompose and feed the loam.
Poplars are always fragile. They have value to nature of course. As a successive forest in time , and a rapidly decomposing wood once on the ground.
But peeled and dried and kept off the ground , usable for humans too.
On a tour you might notice snags. Standing trunks broken off several or more feet above ground. Those are valuable to wildlife too.
Berry canes might be showing this year in some of the openings.
Likely quite a variety of things offering more diversity than a monoculture.
Areas within sites might vary a while too.
Stuff with treetops on the ground to protect it might get browsed less and samples flourish here and there.
