Borg's Woods: Room for Improvement

Wood Planking or Stepping Stones Needed

Image 1: Main Trail 100 feet from Allen Street. Could be smoothed out with a few wheelbarrels of dirt.

Images 1 & 2: Some sections of the trail system that pass through forested wetlands are plagued with muddy conditions that seriously deter trail use. Simple wood-planking has been proposed, see section entitled: Trail Design Criteria for the Children’s Nature Trail @ Borg’s Woods

Image 2: "Cross Trail" that goes east and west, not far from Brook Street. For most of the year, it is virtually impassible. Notice the deep ruts caused by motorbiking.

Images 3 & 4: Sites where stepping stones are used by pedestrians to cross water-courses. In both cases, the trail crosses the water-course by using the rocks..

Image 3: Outlet of the central vernal pond. Efforts by county employees and local homeowners have continued for 20 years to lower the water level in the central vernal pond. These efforts are in direct violation of the state Freshwater Wetlands Act. Other local residents periodically throw rocks at the natural point of drainage to try to minimize the water loss.

Image 4: Stepping Stones in Coles Brook at the foot of Woodland Avenue in Maywood. More substantial pedestrian access would be desirable here. Suggest larger and better-placed stepping stones in the short term. These stones should NOT be "mined" from natural settings in Borg’s Woods.

Vegetable garden overgrowth

Image 5 (below): A portion of the dilapidated garden. Nature has not restored itself in any desirable way.

Image 5 (above): Ivy and other unwanted flora are entagling trees and smaller shrubs. This will eventually kill larger trees and desirable saplings.

Image 7 (below): This is a barbed wire and wire-mesh fence that is unsightly, dilapidated, and functionally obsolete. It also enables encourages parastic ivy to flourish, and the potential for a visitor to be injured by the barbed wire is a liability to the County..

Image 5 (left): Overgrown Garden on Fairmount Avenue. The former vegetable garden has become an unsightly tangle of dilapidated fences, barbed wire, multi-flora stickerbushes (an alien species), fallen trees, and invasive ivy. The Children Nature Trail @ Borg’s Woods proposal would incorporate this area as a native wildflower garden which would beautify the access to Borg’s Woods.

Image 6 (below): Here’s a native tree (Tuliptree) growing in the former vegetable garden, but it has been attacked by Parasitic Ivy and it will soon die unless heroic efforts are undertaken.

 

Vandalism

Image 7 (below): A large fallen tree fell across the main path some time ago. The tree was cut by a private individual and now presents an eye soar. Fallen trees should be left to decay naturally. This tree should probably be removed.

Image 8 (below):: All Terrain Vehicles and motorcross bikes are harmful to the woods in that they destroy vegetation, disturb soil and create noise and air pollution. They also deter others from enjoying the woods. Violators should be fined.

 

No tresspassing signs to be removed

Image 9.

 

Images 9 & 10: Two no tresspassing signs exist in Borg's Woods, - one on the Fairmount side, east of the entrace and the other on the Maywood, north side. Naturally, these signs discourage public entrance into a park that was preserved for its benefit. The signs need to be removed.

Image 10 (bottom): At 12 feet in circumference, this half-dead Northern Red Oak is the second-largest tree in Borg’s Woods, It’s along the edge of the woods behind the former Borg Estate. The bark and half of the canopy was killed by Parasitic Ivy that once climbed all the way to the treetop. The ivy was killed by machete in 1994, and the tree is still struggling to survive. With half the roots dead, it’s only a matter of time before it blows over.