Ugh--they've really ruined what were two of the best exhibits anywhere when they opened in the 80s--the polar bear now made "safer" with the ugly mesh fence addition, and this area that used to have wild stands of dwarf willow now turned into a run of the mill "pit." Sad.
I can recall seeing thick bushes and undergrowth on my first visit to Point Defiance Zoo in late 2005, and now the arctic fox exhibit is a shadow of its former self. The absence of any foliage reveals how truly tiny the enclosure is, and where as before the foxes could hide in the dense leaves now they run around in the open.