wheres all the foliage?
The once-dense wooded sections of the farm are now easily navigable on foot. The fenced-in sample area has a covering of thin, stalky weeds at ground level, in addition to assorted shrubs and sporadic trees. In fact, there appear to be more downed trees than those still standing. There are very few young sapling trees. “(At one time) you couldn’t get through this area, it was so thick with vegetation,” Kates said. Kates blames the deer for the decline of ground-level foliage and new trees, as well as the disappearance of certain species of birds, insects and small mammals from the Pennypack Valley, including the sample area. In a natural chain of events, the deer eat the plants, and, in turn, deprive other animals of a food source. The lack of plant life diversity also prevents the soil from replenishing itself with valuable nutrients and limits the variety of insects the area can support. Kates noted that deer “eat anything worthwhile.” Meanwhile, two so-called “invasive” plants are s
