Service (Deer)
I spent the summer of 2025 working part-time at Hortus Arboretum in Stone Ridge, NY. While my tasks varied from building benches from pine milled on-site, or digging 2'x2'x2' holes for yews, the prominent project was installing deer fencing around the North Woods.
I worked with David Arguez, a local farmer, laborer, and friend, to fasten hundreds of yards of deer fencing to metal or cedar posts, and the occasional living tree (typically a maple or oak.)
This action was performed over the course of an especially hot summer. Dave and I would pack tools and water in-and-out of the forest each day. We would forage for stones and buck down fallen trees to weigh down the bottom of the fencing.
The function of the fencing is to prevent the ever-growing white-tailed deer population from decimating the foods of the forest, particularly young trees that are struggling to mature due to constant browsing. Future plantings await a similar fate in the absence of deer fencing, so Dave and I have erected a plane that will encourage growth, and discourage the continued overabundance of white-tailed deer in New York. While the action is minute and struggles to register as aesthetic, this small window of service we performed provides and protects educational, food, and recreation resources for the public. Our shared love for the woods and its treasures are contained within the fencing, allowed safety and space to grow.
