10 Years ago, the swampland known as Raccoon Ravine was barren of wildlife due to overhunting and trapping that hadn't been regulated. Due to it's remoteness, the animals of Raccoon ravine had gone locally extinct, often left in traps, uncollected, exposed to the elements, starved, and left to die in unimaginable pain due to clamp traps that break their limbs, body traps that impale their body with spears and are staked into the ground to hold them in place for the trapper. I lived here for 2 years without seeing a raccoon, fox, squirrel, rabbit, skunk, possum or groundhog... everything was gone. 

In 2014 I met the first Raccoon who had been rooting around my porch for food. A young, unique looking Raccoon I affectionately called Dog Face. It would be 3 more years before a nearby friend rescued 5 baby raccoons and rehabilitated them and called to ask if she could fee them on the property. I agreed! 

This began the slow, difficult process of re-introducing wildlife to the swamp. Due to the lack of wildlife, for awhile, hunters and trappers lost interest in our swamp- they knew there was nothing left to kill. in 2020 we had our first skunk arrive and spring 2022 brought us our biggest birth of 11 raccoon babies. Unfortunately, poaching continued. The US Fish and Wildlife, in response to me turning in the poachers, purchased all the land around me and opened it to the public, now making it legal to destroy the wildlife I'd devoted my life to saving. Now they encouraged it. After their purchase of 1000 acres across from my house, the older landowners abutting each side of my property sold their land at exorbitant prices, incentivized by the fact that the government now owned most of the surrounding land and it could not be developed, and hunter tourists bought it, erecting hunting blinds and laying more traps immediate, this time targeting the animals I was caring for and nurturing. I began feeding them on my porch after witnessing these animals with mangled limbs, buckshot wounds and broken bones.

It was clear the US Fish and Wildlife Service created a huge problem for the wildlife- and for me, and my home lies in a crossfire. They have never attempted to remedy this. They believe hunters have more rights than me or the animals they slaughter for fun. This is why Raccoon Ravine is a priority for me, and many others, as we fight to allow one place amongst their millions of owned acreage to stay hunter/trapper free and outlaw inhumane traps.