Currently, over thirty images that you see on this website were taken on an area of terra firma that I have named the Bread & Cheese Branch Woodland.  The namesake waterway branch borders the western boundary of several score acres of wild woodland, a portion of which bounds the backend of my homestead property.  This woodland is and has been the home of many deer, foxes, raccoon, hawks, falcons, rabbits, and other wildlife.  It consists of a dense variety of hardwoods, fern fields, hanging tree vines, hills, isolated pond - and most importantly, it is the home of the world famous Mushroom Tree.  Wandering through this woodland takes you into another world - quiet, serene, and beautiful.  Oftentimes my trekking through the tall summer grass flushes out some deer leaping into another direction with a white tail gleaming in the sunlight.  The play of sunlight in the early morning, midday, and late afternoon hours offers the photographer some exceptional opportunities for capturing beautiful images of unspoiled mother nature.

This virtually untouched and seldom visited woodland will not remain so for much longer.  Thirteen acres of this watershed has been acquired by a developer and five expensive homes are planned to be built on 1-2 acre lots.  Water wells have already been drilled for the home sites.  For some reason there has been a delay, and no further progress has been made at this time.  This has offered me the opportunity to capture more images of this woodland before it is completely lost to posterity.  Such is the result of the greedy county officials' motive to capture more tax revenue by rezoning the area for developmental use two years ago.  I personally made my wildlife impact statement to the county commissioners at that time when citizens were invited to speak at a meeting about their concerns on going forward with the planned development.

At this point, nothing further can be done by me to stop this "progress".  Over the past 40 years, I have been an observer of this loss of natural resources for development at other domiciles when we lived in both Pennsylvania and New York state.  The wheels of natural resource exploitation just keeps churning along.  Let us hope and pray that some day elected leaders at the local, state, and federal level will see the folly of their decisions that destroy the natural beauty of our God given ecosystems and that they have the backbone to take the necessary action to stop it from continuing.  Meanwhile, I will continue to explore this woodland for new scenes to make photographic images from.  I still need to reveal this natural beauty during the fall and winter seasons.  Long live the mushroom tree!

See my Woodland image gallery at http://dworr.zenfolio.com/p359124334

D W Orr
Environmentalist, Historic Preservationist, and Photographer
Harford County, Maryland
July 23, 2015
Pond Serenity
                                                                 The Woodland Pond