Hardscape, Hard to Escape

Spending time within parameters set by people of the past became a way of life after I began blogging about Vernon. While Wayne and I set out to explore the natural beauty and curiosities within Vernon's geopolitical borders; this recent turn of events has limitations imposed by official government decree. Something we were doing by choice suddenly has a very different feeling now that it is imposed by people we don't really know.

What is a wildlife corridor? "A strip of natural habitat connecting populations of wildlife otherwise separated by cultivated lands, roads etc..." -Oxford Dictionaries

I once read a meme that said something like this: What if wildlife wasn't crossing over our roads, but our roads were crossing through their homes?

Yesterday my friend shared that MA Governor Charlie Baker urged travelers to not cross MA borders.  Huckle Hill is the next road up from mine and at the top of Huckle Hill is the VT - MA border. Right at that line you will find the most beautiful beaver pond located in an official MA wildlife management area. So by governor's decree and by my own self imposed limits for the purposes of this blog, that pond was forbidden fruit. How appropriate that a wildlife management area stops at the state border; but the actual habitat does not. How thought provoking that a road runs through it.

It is out of love and a sense of responsibility to others that our governors have ordered us to not cross borders or even our neighbors thresholds. Likewise it is by love and a sense of responsibility that we ensure wildlife corridors are preserved or reestablished. - Norma Manning

Just over the border

Coexisting 

Dedicated to my friend Eileen who travels across the boarder every weekday

The state line looking down Huckle hill into Vernon