What’s new? What a question! There is always something going on in our quiet little town.
Right now it’s deer and the fences they prompt. We love deer. And we love woodlands. The problem is that they can’t coexist because the balance of nature has been lost. Without predators, the deer population continues to increase. The only significant limit on the deer population is the available food supply. Deer can reproduce and consume vegetation (on average 8 lbs. per day) faster than the vegetation can reproduce.
The result is that the native vegetation is disappearing, and being replaced by invasive plants the deer don’t eat, such as garlic mustard and buckthorn.
Some residents have erected deer fences or enclosures – more properly called woodland protection fences – in an attempt to preserve and restore the woodlands. The number of such fences south of Deerfield Road, while small, is large enough to have gotten the attention of the Village’s Plan Commission. In November 2009 the Plan Commission proposed a broad fence ordinance, which the Village Board of Trustees is now considering. The ordinance would prohibit effective fences outside a lot’s building lines – which in the typical two acre property are 60 feet from the road, 40 feet from the sides, and 50 feet from the back.
Here are some items of interest:
For more information about woodlands in Riverwoods, see the Woodlands section of this site.
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(Photograph by Ho Min Lim) |
