Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Garlic Mustard Control at Kendrick Woods State Nature Preserve 10:30 am – 3:30 pm 971 N. Defiance Trail, Spencerville Allen County Kendrick Woods is the largest park in the Johnny Appleseed Metropolitan Parks District at just over 500 acres. The 170 acres west of Defiance trail are mature swamp forest and dedicated as a State Nature Preserve. It is the crown jewel of the park district. Visitors can enjoy five miles of hiking trails. There are many spring ephemerals to be enjoyed including large-flowered trillium, green dragon, swamp saxifrage, grove sandwort, blue cohosh, and goldenseal. Birders can enjoy many species of warblers, vireos, thrush, woodpeckers, and scarlet and summer tanagers. The south trail has an artesian sulfur spring that empties into Six Mile Creek, which connects to the Auglaize River a short way to the east. Kendrick Woods State Nature Preserve has the highest biodiversity of all Johnny Appleseed Parks. |
ONAPA volunteers will be helping DNAP and Johnny Appleseed staff and volunteers remove garlic mustard, dame’s rocket, and some woody invasives from the northern portion of the woods.
Directions: Kendrick Woods is located at 971 N. Defiance Trail, Spencerville OH 45887. It is 10 miles west of Lima and ½ mile north of SR 81. Meet in the first parking lot on the right.
What to bring: Water, lunch, gloves, and muck boots. There are pit toilets located adjacent to the parking lot. Herbicide treatment will be done by park staff and trained ONAPA stewardship assistants and volunteers. Park staff and ONAPA will provide tools.
RSVP: To attend or if you have questions, please contact the Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves Association HERE. Online registration is important for our planning.
Directions: Kendrick Woods is located at 971 N. Defiance Trail, Spencerville OH 45887. It is 10 miles west of Lima and ½ mile north of SR 81. Meet in the first parking lot on the right.
What to bring: Water, lunch, gloves, and muck boots. There are pit toilets located adjacent to the parking lot. Herbicide treatment will be done by park staff and trained ONAPA stewardship assistants and volunteers. Park staff and ONAPA will provide tools.
RSVP: To attend or if you have questions, please contact the Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves Association HERE. Online registration is important for our planning.
Discover the World of Lichens at Secrest Aboretum on Friday, May 3, at 10 am
ONAPA Advisor, naturalist, and professional nature photographer, Ian Adams will be the leader of this outstanding event to be held at Secrest Arboretum within the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. There will be a PowerPoint presentation followed by a field trip around the arboretum grounds to view lichens. Secrest Aboretum is located at 2122 Williams Road, Wooster. Registration Required - email guy.denny7@gmail.com |
Bright red on Ohio's spring forest floor is Scarlet Cup Fungus
Story and photo by John Watts
An April hike through moist woodlands and ravines in Ohio will reveal a number of early spring wildflowers that might include Trout Lilies, Spring Beauties, Cut-leaved Toothwort and Blue Cohosh. Suddenly a bright red color catches your attention low on the ground emerging from among the early spring low vegetative growth. While some people focus on other spring fungi, the Scarlet Cup Fungus is one of the few bright red species found in Ohio’s early spring woodlands. This species of fungus appears to being growing on the ground, but moving some leaf litter will reveal its attachment to hardwood branches in the fairly moist, rich ravines, woodlands, and small stream bottoms throughout the state. Found singly or in a loose group, they are typically found in very late March and early April. They vary in size from ¾ to 23/8 inches long and ¾ to 11/4 inches wide and show a deep bright red cup with a white outer surface. The bright red color is produced by several types of carotenoid pigments. Michael Kuo (MushroomExpert.com) notes that field guides often treat this mushroom as "Sarcoscypha |
coccinea," though that species is actually found only in the Pacific Northwest.
"Sarcoscypha dudleyi" and "Sarcoscypha austriaca" are the eastern North American species--but separating them, unfortunately, requires a microscope. Keep an eye out for this fairly common species while enjoying the bounty of Ohio’s spring wildflower show. References: Kou, Michael. MushroonExpert.com. Lincoff, Gary H. 1987. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms. Alford A. Knopf. New York. |
Several March projects scheduled between the month's rainy weather days
Despite some rainy weather, we managed to accomplish five stewardship projects in March. We had two days of hemlock wooly adelgid surveys at Lake Katharine, on March 7 and 21. Unfortunately, HWA is pretty widespread in the preserve, but these surveys will help DNAP determine the best locations for pesticide treatments this summer.
We also worked on woody species removal at Cedar Bog (March 12), Medway orchid site (March 19), and Travertine Fen (March 28). These are all fen or sedge meadow habitat where woody species control is critical to maintaining the plant community and rare species. We were fortunate to have large groups on all three days, 18 people or more each day. |
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Discover the World of Lichens at Secrest Aboretum on Friday, May 3, at 10 am
ONAPA Advisor, naturalist, and professional nature photographer, Ian Adams will be the leader of this outstanding event to be held at Secrest Arboretum within the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. There will be a PowerPoint presentation followed by a field trip around the arboretum grounds to view lichens. Secrest Aboretum is located at 2122 Williams Road, Wooster. Registration Required - email guy.denny7@gmail.com |
Small prairie openings at Greenville Falls get attention from ONAPA
Story and photos by Lydia Radcliffe
ONAPA had its first project at Greenville Falls State Scenic River Area February 15. The day turned out to be an excellent opportunity for partner organizations to work together. This site is managed by the Miami County Park District. Last summer, Jennifer Windus and others from ONAPA’s stewardship team met with the park district’s natural resources management staff, Trevor Diegel and Hailey Demmitt, to visit Goode Prairie State Nature Preserve and Greenville Falls State Scenic River Area to explore opportunities for future collaboration with stewardship projects at one or both sites. This winter’s stewardship project at Greenville Falls was a result of those discussions and focused on removing woody vegetation in the small prairie openings north of Greenville Creek. In addition to ONAPA stewardship volunteers and Miami Park District staff, DNAP preserve manager, Michelle |
Comer and Scenic Rivers staff, Bela Clutter, Rowan Coburn-Griffis, and Autumn Moore also came out to join the effort. A reporter for local WYSO radio station,
Adrianna Martinez-Smiley also participated to collect information for a story on ONAPA and this stewardship project. Our group of fourteen made significant progress in opening the prairie areas up for prairie plants such as grey-headed coneflower, butterfly weed, and nodding wild onion. The team was able to thin and clear cedars, basswood, Asian bush honeysuckle, autumn olive, and other woody vegetation from four prairie clearings. One of these overlooks the limestone cliffs along Greenville Creek; such areas at this site are home to rare plants including rock sandwort, harebell, tufted hairgrass, limestone savory, and wand lily. Projects like these exemplify ONAPA’s role in bringing together like-minded organizations to accomplish valuable stewardship work. The Miami County Park District is one of ONAPA’s newer partners, and thus far natural resources staff there have been more than welcoming to the assistance ONAPA has offered for their high-quality natural areas. We are grateful to the many hands that came out to help at Greenville Falls, and we look forward to more collaborative projects in the future! |
January greets stewardship volunteers with weather challenges in the field
January weather was challenging, but we managed to complete three stewardship projects, even with rescheduling two of them. Two were new projects, OSU Marion Prairie on January 11 and Castalia Quarry Metro Park on January 25.
At OSU Marion campus, we helped remove woody species as part of their prairie restoration efforts. At Castalia Quarry, we primarily removed red cedars in one of the Lakeside daisy areas. The third project on January 18 was at North Bend Bog, a Cleveland Museum of Natural History preserve. We assisted museum and The Nature Conservancy staff remove glossy buckthorn in a degraded buffer area to the bog, with a large group of 16 people (8 from ONAPA). |
Apply by March 15 for ONAPA Stewardship Assistant openings
The Ohio Natural Areas & Preserves Association (ONAPA) is once again offering 3-6-month part-time contract positions, beginning in May, designed to assist ONAPA with stewardship activities including habitat management on nature preserves, rare plant monitoring, preserve monitoring, and administrative activities.
These activities will provide an individual recently graduated from college, or college student going into their senior year, with excellent field experience, training, and good contacts for future employment. |
Program Highlights
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CONNECTIVITY: GROUNDWATER AND SURFACE WATER
This symposium, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., is for natural resource and water planning
professionals as well as river enthusiasts and conservationists.
Register Now
This symposium, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., is for natural resource and water planning
professionals as well as river enthusiasts and conservationists.
Register Now
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December projects finish out a strong year
ONAPA's stewardship team finished up the year with four projects in December, all in cooperation with great partners. We worked at Erie Sand Barrens on December 7 with DNAP, Crane Hollow on December 12 with Crane Hollow Inc., Kitty Todd on December 14 with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and Herrick Fen on December 21 with TNC. We had impressive turnouts at Erie Sand Barrens (15 people) and Crane Hollow (24 people - photo). We were cutting and treating woody species at three of the sites, while at Crane Hollow, we were cleaning up downed white pine trees and branches. At Crane Hollow, we have been eliminating an old pine plantation in an effort to restore it to native oak-hickory forest so the pines were purposely cut earlier by DNAP and Crane Hollow staff. |
Project pace slowed in November
ONAPA's stewardship program slowed down in November, partly due to the weather and winter plans. We are mainly doing projects once a week now, but sometimes when we reschedule a project it may be twice a week. The projects in November included one new site, Travertine Fen in Greene County, owned and managed by the Greene County Park District. It is a high quality fen in need of lots of woody species removal so it was great to get a good start on one of the fen meadows. We will plan another day this winter. Projects in November included the Medway prairie fringed orchid site (November 2), Gallagher Fen (November 9), Lakeside Daisy Preserve (November 14), and Travertine Fen (November 16). All involved woody species removal with cut stem herbicide application, primarily to open fen meadow, savanna, and alvar habitat for rare plant species. We will also be recruiting for new stewardship assistants for the spring, so contact us if you are interested or know someone who may be interested in this opportunity. These positions are for college students or recent college graduates. |
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VOLUNTEERWe have many volunteer opportunities available throughout the year. Invasive control, preserve monitoring, etc.
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