National Public Lands Day



Volunteer stirring up deer

 Today, September 29, 2012 is National Public Lands Day. Homestead National Monument of America hosted a Deer Survey and encouraged people to come and volunteer. We had about 21 people come to this event, everyone who participated got a certificate that allows them free entrance to a National Park Service site as a thanks for volunteering. The event started with a briefing at the Education center and then everyone moved to the east end of the prairie, up near the Heritage Center. The volunteers, SCA's (Molly, Nicole and myself) and the staff formed a line from the north boundary of the prairie to the south boundary. The line of people then began to walk toward Cub Creek on the Western end of the monument. The point of this was to count the number of deer stirred up, each person would count and deer that ran between them and their neighbor on the right. There were also some observers posted on the boundary of the monument to count any deer exiting the area. After the prairie and the woodlands had all been covered, everyone returned to the education center to compare notes. The results of the survey were that 24 deer were sighted in the monument. Past yeas results have been a low as 8 and as high as 25, so this year the number was amongst the high.

It was a great event attended by all ages, and everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves!


Paperwork

Discussion of results with Ranger Jesse Bolli