Designing habitat for Raccoons, Opossums and Cats 
 by
 Ritika Putta
 Troop 220 , Fremont

 On Day 1 of my Eagle Project, we tackled the plants that were obstructing the area. Near the steps and trail, we cut many small plants with cutters. This work was done by Avni Madhu, Sanjana Mohan, Swathi Asokumar, Aaruni Rao, Zoe Reider, Apoorva Bathula, Pranav Putta, Ms. Bathula, and Athira Biju. For the larger trees in the front of the area, we had adults (Mr. Putta and Ms. Chennagowda) use electric chainsaws to cut the branches and the actual trees themselves. Ms. Krishnaswamy helped remove large trees that were to the side with a handsaw as well. Colin Rush helped with de-rooting and digging out the large trees we had cut down. By the end of the day, we were able to clear the entire area and shape 1 of the 3 areas in which we wanted to put the animal shelters.  


   area before starting clearing area

On Day 2 of my Eagle Project, we tackled many of the smaller tasks we had. We removed a collapsed tree and the deadwood associated with it with the help of an electric chainsaw used by Mr. Madhu. We shaped the remaining two areas with the help of Mr. Madhu, Ms. Putta, Colin Rush, and Mr. Putta. Arnav Madhu and Bhoomika Sidda helped mulch all the areas and level them in order to place the animal shelters. With the help of Mr. Madhu and Mr. Putta, we were able to repair all of the animal shelters. We installed new brackets to the legs in order to prevent wobbling and cut and reattached wood that was too rotten to drill through. After repairing them, we placed one animal shelter near the front of the area near the gate, one to the side of the area, and two in the lower part of the area. All are visible and have been placed in a manner so that they are easy to access.
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fixing the cat shelters

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