Our BIG Yard

that we take care of here at Moosehorn NWR. 

I usually mow while Wallace weed eats and moves the picnic tables.  He gets the tough, dirty jobs.  We start at headquarters.

Just across the road is the visitor cabin and information kiosk.

Then mowing the edge of the main road down to the entrance. 

To the left of the entrance, I then mow down this trail (Greg's Pond Trail).

It is more like a road, but it gets mowed as the growth gets pretty thick further down the trail as you will see in the next picture.

Then I get back on the main road and mow the road edge to the Woodcock Trail.

This trail is handicapped access and I mow a half mower width on both sides of the trail which is a third of a mile long and loops back to the parking lot.

Then on down the road edge to the beginning where it turns into the refuge off Charlotte Road, back to the entry sign while mowing the side of the road which takes me to the island at the Charlotte Trail parking lot.

After this, I mow the road edge to the horse trailer parking lot.

This gives you an idea what the side of the roadways look like. From here, I mow on down the road to this area.

The YCC building and where we are parked.

And then just opposite here is another trail head for the Charlotte Trail.

This trail is right next to where we are parked and many times I will take my hand clippers and towels to tidy up the signs and clip the branches that grow out onto the trail.  It also gets mowed.  You can see the horse trailer parking lot in the right of the picture.

Next I mow up the road to headquarters and down the other side of the road until it brings me back to headquarters.  Now you have been given a tour of the refuge entrance area .  I do it in this order so as not to waste time going back and forth.  One big circle.

Now we load up the truck and travel to gates and other parking lots nearby.

Wallace weed eats around the boulders and I mow.  Then on to our next spot.

These are before and after pictures.  This is our Wildlife Viewing area where we have a Bald Eagle nest with one eaglet.  Yeah!!!

This is another parking lot where you can park to go fishing.  I mow up and down the trail that takes you to the water while Wallace weed eats around the boulders.

Our next stop is at the gates and another road that takes you to another trail on Icehouse Road called Dan's Trail, a trail that takes you up to look into Canada and the St. Croix River.

You can hardly see the boulders to the right in this picture.

Now you can see them...onto the gates...there are about 30 gates scattered about.  We need only show one.

Now we don't have to wade through the weeds to unlock the gate.
The vegetation was really overgrown when we got here.

One more parking lot where people go to launch kayaks and canoes and that is at Bearce Lake.  Wallace weed eats the whole area.

Whew...after all that...pork chops for supper.

We are sure glad the whole 30,000 acres does not have to be mowed.  hehe.

A part of the mission of wildlife refuges is the enhancement of the properties.  We are happy to do our part and take great pride in how it looks.