Narrative in the Woods

Eco Narrative Story

              The slow progression from the warmer days to the cooler nights, the transition of the soft and subtle green leaves of summer to the vibrant red, orange, and yellow ones of autumn.  Midwest autumns are never short of change and for animals, the beginning of fall is the beginning to prepare for the colder winter months. The white-tailed deer are native to the greater Miami valley and no stranger to the transitions of fall. The bucks with staggering antlers, stand tall and firm as they start searching for a mate during these months. They come to the forest grazing the shrubbery and plants to eat while on the search. The doe who has been attached to their white spotted fawn during the warmer months walk the forest together, and the doe begins to wander the woods, where a male might be waiting for them. When the buck finds a doe suitable for a match, he will stay with the doe for a few days, perhaps a few weeks depending on the deer, to ward off any unwanted intruders. When this time ends, the buck will leave the doe and search for another doe during breeding season. The doe will have a gestation period of several months before a spring fawn will be born. Usually, adult does are able to produce twins and even triplets during spring.

              Before the fawn is born, the deer run along the forest floor. While very active animals in general, the deer is seen less during midday when the sun is high in the sky but prefer the cool mornings when the sun is just rising or the chilly evenings as the sun sinks beneath the horizon. The deer wander and trample around forest floors grazing a variety of leaves, twigs, underlying brush, nuts, and fruits. The deer does not know their feedings can prove quite harmful to the surrounding area as other animals hunt for food and the overall wood, is not undamaged from the deer’s path. The deer are able to reproduce and disrupt the woods growing patterns. The deer eating a lot of the brush, there is a lack of growth and substance leaving the forest floor nearly bare without tree seedlings, plants, and other growth which provides a balanced ecosystem.  While the White-Tailed Deer is native to the area, the coyotes, foxes, and other animals which prove to be a natural predator to the deer are not as prominent, thus the deer are able to roam freely without fear of being harmed.  

              Leaving the forest floor open for new growth, the native Paw Paw tree sprouts. This tree bears small green fruit, blossoming in the late summer and fall season. Sometimes called the Indiana Banana due to it being a tropical like tree finds its roots in North America. Growing wild and free from the southern united states all the way north to the great lake’s region of the Midwest. The leaves are dark green with large shiny blades, they hang limply from their branches and change into a yellow or golden-brown during autumn. In spring, the purple flower blooms from the branches, although usually attracted to bright and colorful things bees and insects stray away from this flower to a more intriguing and interesting plant. The peak of the paw paw tree is during fall when dark purple flowers from spring produce the paw paw fruit. The odd bean shape fruit is popular within the animals that come across the tree not including the white-tailed deer. While the deer enjoy grazing a variety of other plants, the paw paw tree which roams the understory remains largely untouched. This mutualistic relationship helps balance the ecosystem, where the benefits of one species helps another. The white-tailed deer clears a path for the paw paw tree which will help the understory and provide a way for more paw paws to grow.

White the paw paw trees are small trees, never rising higher than a tall shrub, the American beech tree which is a deeply loved and established tree in a variety of forests, as well as deeply impacted by the white-tailed deer. While grown beech trees face little harm from the deer the young sapling of a beech tree may not grow past this stage due to the browsing of the abundance of deer and the slow growing process which may take years and generations for it to reach full adulthood. The grown and mature beech tree provides a source of life for many critters and creatures including worms, caterpillars, bugs, and produce flowers which bloom in spring. These flowers turn into a fruit which ripens through the season, as well as nuts which provide a wide variety of animals including chipmunks, squirrels, birds, and other smaller animals.

While the grown beech tree grows tall, towering over most of the overstory with light grey bark. The beech dominates the Wright State Woods with it being some of the oldest trees, while being one of the most common trees that withstands deer populations. The white-tailed deer grazes the understory, providing a space for the paw paw tree to grow and flourish, not allowing some species such as the invasive honeysuckle to grow. The beech trees provide an abundance of growth and life to the overstory, in which the nuts and fruits allow many species to live in the woods itself. There is something to be said about the unique balance of all the species; flora and fauna, and the way each species plays a part in the ecosystem. The hundreds and thousands of relationships happening in the Wright State woods all provide a balance and living ecosystem that plays out perfectly moment by moment, day by day, year by year, and so on. Without one, the balance would shift and tilt, and cause a disruption in which the ecosystem would be different. The Wright State woods ecosystem runs seamlessly without human intervention yet is deeply affected humans interact with it in a negative way. The Wright State community as a whole must be able to commune and live within the ecosystem of the woods without disrupting it but keeping it alive.

 

 

Work Cited

“American Beech” Arbor Day. https://www.arborday.org/trees/treeguide/TreeDetail.cfm?ItemID=789

Basiden, Emily “Trees Of The Trolls: Meet The American Beech” 2021.  Maine Gardens. https://www.mainegardens.org/blog/trees-of-the-trolls-meet-the-american-beech/

Jones, Tom “Are There Too Many Deer” 2020. National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/cuva/planyourvisit/are-there-too-many-deer.htm

Matthews, Elizabeth “Pawpaw: Small Tree, Big Impact” National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/pawpaw.htm

“PAWPAW” Ohio Department of Natural Resources. https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/plants-trees/broad-leaf-trees/pawpaw-asimina-triloba

“White-Tailed Deer” Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/animals/mammals/white-tailed-deer

“White-tailed Deer – Odocileus virginianus” New Hampshire PBS. https://nhpbs.org/wild/whitetaileddeer.asp

“white-tailed deer” Britannica.  https://www.britannica.com/animal/white-tailed-deer

“Odocileus virginianus white-tailed deer” Animal Diversity. https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Odocoileus_virginianus/