I just realized I have erred in dates. We moved here May 04 and I started the 'well' process/application in late '06. '07 and '08 the creek dried out but parts of each year, after heavy rains (fall and late winter) the creek would overflow and flood the forest. Severe drought followed by drowning is stressful on trees although the mayapples have spread from 3 rather small patches to cover most of the forest area and out in the open of the easement. Used to have above the ground power lines back there, storm and sanitary sewers back there under the lines. Lines and poles were removed last spring, a year after the utility maintainance crews did an enormous tree trimming job (we have firewood to last forever).
The lines were inactive. Our developer, responding to one theft in the neighborhood, said they planned to fence just this side of the easement for our security.
After ROTFLMAO I asked had they ever walked 'back there'.
The fence they proposed..an 8 foot chain link type would begin connecting to nothing and end connecting to nothing as the neighbors where the fence would end refused to fence their back yard.
I told the developer if they planned to add the cost of the fence and maintainance to our HOA dues, then he'd damm well better get back in that forest and clear it of deadfall. And, be prepared to replace fencing because there would be more deadfall.

You have to appeal to their wallets, not be emotional.
And it worked. And now I have no power lines to disturb the view and there's no reason for maintainance to trim trees, just bush hog and make the easement easy to walk.
Now, if I can just get those idiots to realize that you can't fit the water from a swollen stream into a 12" pipe and that it's installed too low and backs up when the creek is high and floods the forest.
I guess occasionally a lot of water is better than no water for a forest. It's run-off water and only a few spots hold promise for the mosquitoes. The rest moves on or absorbs overnight.

Yes, in nature there are results of drought and other changes in the landscape, most notably development. We have lost many of our native dogwoods over the last few years, and development has meant more deer on our small parcel that is wooded.

However, I am always astonished at what manages to survive. And strangely enough, I am now seeing more trillium "babies" than ever before. I wonder if Mother Nature told those seeds to germinate before it was too late?? Seriously, I even have more bloodroot and hepatica seedlings than ever before. Go figure, as they say.

I enjoyed your comments about your area and good to know there are some people who don't have to walk far to be able to see and appreciate nature.

My small parcel is near the entrance to a popular jogging trail outside of Greensboro, and in good weather there are so many people who leave the city to come out and walk you can hardly drive down the road. I know it is better for populations to be centralized so that more land can be preserved, but oh, how I would hate to live in the city and have to "visit" Mother Nature.

It's interesting to note that the widespread death of the midsized pawpaw trees is not permanent. The roots live on and are now sending up a raft of sprouts, already 2-3' tall. Here I was clearing out all the dead pawpaws, just pushing them over with the help of my bulldog and wondering if this little open glade might be planted with some missing natives.
No sense trying that if these baby pawpaws take hold (given adequate water). Never have found the big mama pawpaw that sends out these sprouting roots. Fascinating to realize that there is probably much more life underground than what we see above ground.
I am resolved to merely cutting off the dead tops of what I think has died and give whatever it is a year to recover and resprout. After all, I had a crepe myrtle..chopped down and the stump deeply ground down only to resprout vigorously a few years later. I've never seen the mayapple leaves so big as they are this year. Maybe I have a chance to view a blossom this year.

Seems also, with more light thanks to the fallen pawpaws, the weed grasses and other weeds are nearly 2 feet tall and there are far more rainlilies blooming than I have ever noticed before.

Dottie, thanks for that lovely post. I've thought that a number of plants have come back stronger this year, and am loving the beauty. Maybe it's just because this is their second year post-transplant. Or maybe it's because surviving a shock makes an organism stronger.

I was up in DC visiting my sister a couple weeks back and took her dogs for a walk in a nearby [paved] natureway. Just off the side of the path, a jack-in-the-pulpit caught my eye. Then a Venus flytrap. Then a May-apple. Maybe it's because I've seen the plants, read about them, dreamed about them, planted them (thank you, gardenweb swaps!! and Duke garden sales days). But I've never seen these in the wild like that before. We used to hear about jack-in-the-pulpit when I was a kid, and I had a Venus flytrap for a little while. But to see them like that??? Here's hoping they survive...