Our family enjoys winter in many ways, and tracks are one of our favorites. Signs of the wildlife with which we share our land are more evident in winter snow. There are stories in those tracks. On one occasion, we saw running deer tracks followed by running wolf tracks. Since we didn’t see the actual event, we only assumed, based on those animals’ natures, that the deer was not chasing the wolf. That assumption was proven when a second set of wolf tracks joined the chase. We followed the trail until blowing snow erased the tracks, so we didn’t know the end of that event.
The blowing snow often drifts over the banks of the beaver ponds. It was in one of these drifts years ago that we saw indications of a mountain lion. Its body impression was laid out in the snow behind some brush overlooking a frozen beaver pond. The imprint was complete with tail sweeps. At some point, it leaped from hiding with 25-foot bounds across the snow in chase of deer tracks. No, it wasn’t chasing tracks, but that is what we saw in place of the actual event.
We see signs of living and dying in winter among our wild residents more often than the deed itself. Wing impressions in soft snow with centered spots of blood tell of some bird catching some meal. Was it an owl or a hawk? Snowshoe hare or vole? We couldn’t tell. We do know, by well-worn trails, that hares are abundant this year. Playful otter slides in the snow are sometimes found on the hillside adjacent to the frozen creek.
Warm weather hides many of these stories due to vegetation and hard ground. We do see an occasional track in mud. The presence of bears is revealed by their foraging for grubs and ants in torn-up stumps and ground. However, the warm water of the ponds reveals a different kind of tracks.
I have learned the difference between beaver and otter in the small wakes they create on pond surfaces. Beavers make a distinct “V” wake as they swim straight across the water. Otters, however, are more random in the water as they search for food. When they find a small school of creek chubs or crayfish, they dive repeatedly, bringing up food to eat on the surface. This results in multiple concentric rings on the water’s surface. “Tracks” on water quickly disappear, so we always scan the ponds as we go about our tasks.
Once, I noticed three wood ducks swimming rapidly away from unusually large wakes on the pond’s surface. They looked over their backs and acted startled. I couldn’t see what they were escaping from. By the time I got to the pond, whatever created the disturbance was gone. Ahead, I could see trampled, wet vegetation on the bank, and when I got there, moose tracks were evident. Apparently, those little ducks didn’t want to be too close to such a large critter.
Humans have always followed tracks of both food and enemies. They were also aware of the trail they themselves left behind in tracking others. People devised ways to cover their tracks when wanting to hide evidence of their passing. The last person in a column of warriors might sweep brush over their trail. Individuals would tie furry animal tails to their footwear to sweep away clues of who walked there.
Successful criminals know how to hide evidence and cover their tracks to prevent capture and prosecution. The modern era has given new ways to cover an illegal trail. Accurate falsification of documents, the internet, and AI now make it possible to make evidence disappear or appear as something else. In the same way as blowing snow covers tracks in the wild, swirling chaos can cloak a trail of crime.
Legal wrangling can create chaos to help wrong-doers avoid responsibility. Our legal system has developed two types of prosecutorial evidence—direct and circumstantial. Direct evidence is an eyewitness, for example. Circumstantial evidence is indirect proof that requires logical inference. It is the “logical inference” part that can be argued. Animal tracks are circumstantial evidence that those animals passed through. Identification of deer tracks can infer that there were deer in the woods, but without an eyewitness, it could be questioned whether the deer are still there. Direct evidence is a person actually seeing the deer.
Sometimes I don’t see the animal I’m tracking because it moves faster than I can. I can follow the tracks, but I just can’t catch up. I have to move quietly while watching ahead, which means I move slower. The deer I’m following has no such restrictions. It moves as it wants unless I get too close or make too much noise, causing the deer to simply disappear.
Outpacing the legal system is another way to avoid consequences. The current federal administration moves so fast as to clog the courts. It has an advantage over a legal system that must follow the trail carefully and move judiciously slow. The current presidential administration famously pushes past the boundaries of tradition and law so fast that the courts simply cannot react quickly enough to prevent damage, even if the courts eventually overrule administration action.
The expression “Justice is Blind” refers to the ideal of an impartial judiciary. The symbol of Lady Justice is a blindfolded woman holding a balancing scale. Recently, she has been replaced by highly positioned men implementing Project 2025 with no such blindfold or scale. They are covering the tracks of their march to authoritarianism with tricks tied to their jackbooted heels. Some politically appointed judges hang there with American oligarchs at their side. The “techbros” flop across the trail for their economic advantage. At the head of this anti-democratic march is an emerging private army empowered by hate and bearing a grudge. They are certainly leaving a trail leading directly to a fork in the road of the American experiment with individual rights.
American individuals, through strength in numbers, must set aside the distractions tossed about by the chaos and profiteering spinmakers. Focus on the tracks of these authoritarians. Follow that trail until we speak up and stand in our constitutional democracy and rule of law. Do so for the future of the next generations, so they can live in a free society.
