Old Unionville Pike

It is the last day of winter at the prairie, and there is still quite a lot of snow on the ground. At least I am assuming there is. I haven't been to Big Hollow for a couple of months since the snow started falling in late January. The road to the prairie isn't plowed, and I haven't had the time to walk in. The rutted dirt path that currently exists through Big Hollow offers little hint that the road was once of enough importance to have a name - Old Unionville Pike. Unionville is a crossroads located along Alt. Route 220 in the Bald Eagle Valley perhaps four miles from Big Hollow. The Old Unionville Pike would have climbed through the hollow past the prairie, run down over the hill through Fillmore, then continued over Bald Eagle Ridge to Unionville. These days the pike ends only a few hundred yards uphill from the prairie.

I have posted a picture of some of the area that David Hopey and I cleared last winter. Last summer the area supported a few prairie plants and a lot of brambles, shrubs, and Asiatic Bittersweet vine. We are hoping that simply cutting and removing the brush will allow the prairie to rebound, but we'll be ready to spray the woody stumps to finish them off.

With spring officially arriving tonight at 8:07 pm it won't be long before we are back at work on the prairie.