Mending Walls

By: Ellen Harris, Education & Volunteer Specialist

Volunteers work together to remove fencing at Eagle's Nest Open Space.
Photos Ellen Harris

In the oft-quoted Robert Frost poem, “Mending Wall,” the narrator’s neighbor asserts, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Whether or not this is true or was what Frost originally intended has been and will continue to be debated for years, but what cannot be denied is that some of our fences make for better neighbors than others.

A four-strand barbed wire fence makes for good neighbors if your neighbors are cattle. It does not make for good neighbors when you are also managing for deer, elk, and other wild animals.

At Eagle’s Nest Open Space, the traditional use of cattle ranching lives alongside outdoor recreators and a great many wild animals using the space to raise their young and migrate from higher elevations to lower ones and back again. Four strands of barbed wire are hard to get over or under, and hard to get around, especially if you are a deer fawn or elk calf.

How do we mend this wall?

If you have a crowd of volunteers, it turns out it’s possible to remove 1,585 feet of fence in a day -- something that would take a lot longer for our staff to do on their own. The fence will be replaced, this time with a fence allowing space for wild animals to go under and a smooth top wire that will make it easier for deer and elk to jump over without injury.

As the neighbor and narrator did in “Mending Wall,” I hope our volunteers had some time to consider what it means to be a good neighbor, especially to the wild creatures around us. I know I did.