Mysterious Hole in the Woods

Last year we had a professional forester walk through our trees and make recommendations to us on best practices to improve its health and commercial value. We knew that our trees were overdue for thinning, and one of the primary recommendations he made was to thin our existing stands by 20% in order to provide some more growing room for the remaining trees.

To that end, we recently spent several hours walking through one of our oldest stands, marking a total of 200 trees to be removed. We walked up and down each row, looking up trying to identify the weakest trees (split or broken tops, dead branches.) In the process, I almost stepped right into a hole in the ground!

I immediately called Corinne over (okay, first I backed up several feet.) This was probably the most comprehensive survey we've made of that forest section, so at first we thought the hole could have been old. Further inspection, however, revealed that the dirt in front of the hole was devoid of needles or sticks and was distinguishable from the forest floor surrounding it. This was no small hole, either. If one of us were to stand with our feet in the mouth of the hole, the forest floor level would be slightly above our knees; the diameter of the opening looked to be about 15-16 inches. These are estimates, of course, as it took a fair bit of fortitude for me to get close enough even for this photo.

We passed this photo around to a few wildlife experts we know - Jim, forester and Bill, wildlife biologist. At first the best guess was that it was a badger den. Although we've never seen a badger on our property, they are native to our area, and since they feed on pocket gophers they would have plenty to eat! However, after doing further investigation we now believe that this was a coyote den. Apparently coyotes dig dens such as these in which to raise their young; after the pups are old enough, the den is abandoned, either permanently or until the next breeding season. Since we had 2 pups frequent our yard this spring, we now assume that they were born and raised in this hole. We haven't seen the pups in some time, so hopefully they have now moved on to another area (although just as likely they have learned to stay out of sight.)

We still have many more stands to mark, so who knows what other exciting discoveries are waiting for us out there!

- Mike (& Corinne)