This week during our class period we were lucky enough to hear from a woman who works to preserve the South Mountain Reservation. She expressed to us how much work has gone into helping keep the area from being destroyed due to many factors. Two main reasons for the damage done to this local reservation are due to the overpopulation of deer and spreading of non-native plant species. She told us that the deer are overgrazing the area, and so they had to hire specialty hunters to come in and shoot some of them. They have been having a hard time doing this though because of resistance from local residence who do not like the idea of killing deer. It was expressed, however, that although she herself does not like to have to kill the deer, it is essential and in the best interest of the deer and the forest in the long run. In addition to the deer, non-native plants, such as a plant described as being similar to bamboo in a way, has been taking over the reservation little by little and is seemingly impossible to get rid of, even after pulling out the plant by the roots and covering the area for years or poisoning it. The guest speaker nicknamed the plant "Terminator" because no matter how many times she kills it or thinks she kills it the plant always comes back and even multiplies in number.
After the wonderful quest speaker we got a chance to look at our own website and make some improvements to it, as well as discuss a little what we want to do as our project. As of now it seems the general consensus is that we are thinking of focusing on raising awareness about bio-dynamics and pushing to have a class taught at Seton Hall on this topic. We also looked up the organization that is known for its work in this area, the Pfeiffer Center, which actively teachers people about this type of planting and has their own farm where they grow plants using this method. We ended by deciding to visit their center on February 17th to see for ourselves what bio-dynamics is all about.