The western border of the Huitl Wood is locked in by the back yards of that section of our neighborhood, and all but two of those homes have either privacy or chain link fences, creating a fairly contiguous physical barrier along that edge of the property.

The north is wide open to the smaller sibling of our arboreal oasis, and the only barrier between the two lots is an imaginary, if legally effective, line on a map. This northern lot is about ten acres compared to the Huitl Wood's thirteen, and contains a pond covering most of an acre.

The southern edge of the woods presses to the curb of a wide residential street which itself dead ends against the ballpark/airport complex about a block east. This edge is mostly a hedgerow of privets densely woven with green briar and trumpet vines.

We live along the eastern edge of the woods which, similar to the western border, is largely hemmed by backyard fences. The exceptions are two street stubs, meant to provide access to the future housing expansion envisioned when the area was originally developed some 50 years ago, but which simply dead end at the property line, and an easement between two homes where a small stream leaves the property, runs under the street, and disappears to the east.

The woods contain a three part stream system consisting of two storm drain exhausts redirecting rain water from different parts of the west side neighborhood, and an overflow stream for the pond in the adjoining property to the north. All three branches eventually join together before exiting to the east.

There is a small meadow on the western edge defined by the course of the two storm fed branches of the stream, and where the pond stream joins the other two branches they form a small complex of peninsulas, beaches, and a sometimes-island. The property is otherwise flat and thickly populated with pines, oaks, and elms.