The Nelsons are typical small-acreage landowners who want to be better stewards of their property. Below, we learn what they enjoy about their natural area, and what they would like to do to improve its natural and aesthetic qualities.

Property description and why they bought the land

My wife, Ellen, and I and our children (Jeffrey, who's four, and Annie, who's two) have been living on our 4.5-acre lot for a little more than two years. We bought our wooded property because of its great location, space for our children to explore, privacy, and a bit of space to “play with the land.” During the purchase process and in talking with locals, we learned that our property was once part of a larger farm sold in three pieces to separate buyers. Some of the pieces were slated for development. According to an old local logger, much of the original property was wooded and had been harvested several times. It was also good hunting ground, according to long-time residents. About seven years ago, development began on the part of the farm where our home is now. We bought our house and land from a young family who had lived here for four years. As best we can tell, the only thing they did outside was to cut down a few trees damaged during construction.

Frequent outdoor activities help cultivate children's
inherent curiosity about nature.

We enjoy having nature close to us. We often see red fox, wild turkey, white-tailed deer, cottontail rabbits, and lots of squirrels from the kitchen window. We’ve also seen pileated woodpeckers working on a dead tree just over our property line. We enjoy watching the wildlife come to us, but we also enjoy being outside in “their environment.” Our only problem with the wildlife is that deer often eat the shrubs and flowers we plant around the house.

We are excited to have Oak Creek along the back property line. At first we hoped we might construct a little dam at our corner for a swimming hole. Well, we quickly found out we couldn’t do that because of environmental regulations, but we did find out from the county cooperative extension office about streamside areas and how to protect them with forest buffers. The banks of the stream are now covered mostly with a raspberry and green briar thicket.

What they have done with the property

We haven’t done a lot in our first two years here except to clear out a small patch of woods behind the kids’ play area. We cut the underbrush so they can play there and felled a few dead and potentially hazardous trees. It’s difficult to find time with two children under the age of five and home improvement projects. Most recently, we’ve tried to kill some invasiveand/or nonnative plants (mostly tree-of-heaven). A few dead hickory trees stand in the midst of the wooded areas. We’re debating if we should cut these or maybe leave a few for woodpeckers and other wildlife.

The Nelsons made a sketch map to highlight the features of their property.

Property description and why they bought the land

For starters, we want to mow less grass. We currently mow about 1.5 acres. We’re interested in converting the lawn in front of the garden into trees for more privacy. Because our mostly wooded lot is long and narrow and oriented roughly north-south, quite a bit of shade comes our way in the morning and evening from neighboring wooded lots. So sunlight is somewhat limited and decreasing as the medium-sized forest trees on our boundaries grow.

We’d like to help improve the water quality in Oak Creek by planting trees and shrubs on our bank. We’ve begun to learn how important streamside areas are for water quality and wildlife diversity, so we definitely want to enhance this area. We’d like to encourage reptiles and amphibians to live there and include the area on a walking trail, so the kids can discover these neat creatures.

We’d like to improve our privacy so we can see less of our neighbors and more of the stars throughout the year. Their floodlight dims our nighttime sky. We’d also love to have more fall color among our trees.

We will follow the Nelsons’ progress in their land stewardship projects throughout the guide. You may also wish to read about two other families and their properties. Read about the Lees at this link and about the Rothmans at this link.

Now it is time to assess your own family’s interests in your land.