THE BIG SNOW Unless you are already somewhere else where it’s warm and sunny, you are probably preparing for the significant snowstorm forecast to arrive by tomorrow morning. Here is the general game plan the Maintenance Crew follows.
First priority: Keep the roads open for essential travel, such as emergency vehicles.
Then: Driveways are plowed in order of need:
–residents who have in-home caregivers who work shifts, and must have the ability to switch with other medical caregivers at the end of their shift.
–driveways of physicians who need to get to medical centers to provide care.
–driveways that are steep and/or curving that require salting.
–all other driveways, from steepest to flattest.
As long as the snow keeps falling, the crew will concentrate on the top of the list. Manpower and equipment are used in the most efficient and cost effective ways to be able to last through the entire storm.
Once the storm is over, work will continue until everyone is plowed out. Residents are encouraged to stay home until it is safe to be on the roads again, not only here in BHV but on the city, county and state roads beyond our borders. (Country Club Road beyond the BHV West Entrance is gravel and significantly crowned for water run off so it may be especially icy and hazardous long after paved roads are bare.) Thank you for your patience. Stay warm and enjoy the beautiful wintry views!
TECH HELP NEEDED The BHV Trustees will be meeting in person on February 14, 2022. There will also be an online option for the public, and help is needed to monitor the laptop at the meeting. Contact Jan/Traci at 734-222-5209; bhvclerk@bartonhillsvillage.org for details.
THINKING OF SPRING . . . Please keep in mind that most outdoor projects require a BHV zoning compliance certificate. Besides exterior changes to your house, this includes:
–fences and retaining walls greater than 18” high
–accessory buildings (garage, garden shed, trash enclosure, gazebo, etc)
–excavation other than common household gardening/ground care
–playground equipment, stairways/patio enclosures, outdoor swimming/landscape pools
–exterior lighting, generators, parking areas, solar/wind energy structures, satellite antennas
Contact the Clerk’s Office to ask about your project so you can get off to a good start.
DEER MANAGEMENT PROGRAM Year 3 of the Deer Management Program has been successfully completed. Thank you for your cooperation. Please see the article below from the Climate Resilience Committee related to this program.
People who feed deer love wildlife and nature. Deer are beautiful animals…especially when you see them running across your yard…and the fawns are beyond delightful… Question: Why would anybody be opposed to feeding deer? Answer: There are too many of them.
Deer populations will continue to grow until they eat all the food available. Four deer can produce 160 deer in six seasons. There is no biological mechanism that limits herd growth other than predators. Wolves are the primary deer predators. There are no wolves in Washtenaw County.
Deer can damage ecosystems by over browsing the forests and fields. A single whitetail deer eats roughly 3,000 pounds of plant material each year. Herds remove swaths of forest wildflowers and damage the woody understory, according to Christopher Dick, a University of Michigan evolutionary biologist. This affects native butterflies, bees, small mammals, amphibians and ground-nesting birds.
Browsing deer also destroy native plants like Trillium and Solomon’s Seal (once plentiful in Barton Hills, and now virtually extinct) and decimate the extensive wildlife that depend on them. Their food preferences allow unpalatable species to proliferate, including invasive garlic mustard and Japanese barberry, which inhibit the next generation of forest trees and native wildflowers. In a 2015 study, an ecological team surveyed browsing impacts in Ann Arbor’s Bird Hills Nature Area and found browsing damage in 80 percent of the tree saplings.
Trees and forests capture and sequester carbon. The destruction of the forests by an overabundance of deer accelerates climate change and works against any net zero carbon emissions goal. An oak tree can sequester 5-10 metric tons of carbon equivalent per year. There are over a thousand acres of oak trees in the Ann Arbor area, as well as the many oaks in Barton Hills. Deer browse is preventing the regeneration and replacement of oak trees, significantly reducing the amount of carbon being sequestered.
The greatest drawback to feeding deer is the potential harm to their health. Fruit and grains are not a normal part of a deer’s diet and can be extremely difficult for deer to digest. Corn and apples are especially hard because the gut microbes needed to break them down are different than those that break down the more fibrous natural foods deer eat during winter. This mismatch in gut microbes can result in animals that starve because they are unable to absorb the nutrients they need. They also don’t have the right amounts and types of vitamins, minerals, and especially fiber that deer need to stay healthy. Feeding these foods is similar to feeding children nothing but candy bars.
Deer concentrating at a feeder can make the animals more vulnerable to disease and increase transmission of serious or fatal diseases such as Chronic Wasting Disease, Bovine Tuberculosis and Lyme disease. Feeding areas can draw animals away from typical paths to crossing roads, creating a safety hazard as well as lethal accidents. Proximity to people and pets can lead to dangerous interactions, and feed stations can attract other wild animals along with predators such as coyotes.
While feeding may seem like a nice thing to do for the deer, it’s actually the opposite. Creating an artificial food dependence weakens the ability of the deer to maintain their natural, wild behavior. Deer adapt to winter conditions naturally, and will be healthier if people don’t interfere. Please don’t feed the deer!