Ohio Natural Areas & Preserves Association

Tuesday, July 8, 10 am, enjoy a special tour of kettle lake sphagnum peatlands in Portage County

Leader ONAPA President Guy L. Denny and author of Peatlands of Ohio and the Southern Great Lakes Region will be exploring kettle lake sphagnum peatlands of Portage County. The tour will follow boardwalks in Kent Bog and Triangle Lake State Nature Preserves. If you have a copy of Denny’s peatland book, he will be glad to autograph it. Please register to receive directions on where to meet. To register, please email [email protected]

Registration Required --- participation limited to 15.

Kent Bog - Photo by Ian Adams

Running Buffalo clover survey

Lakeside Daisy survey mapping on Kelly's Island

Lakeside Daisy SNP Field Trip

Stewardship projects and field trip to Lakeside Daisy preserve highlight ONAPA work

Our stewardship team busy with a few stewardship projects and several days of rare plant monitoring on Lakeside daisy, running buffalo clover at Boch Hollow (photo), and prairie valerian. We spent a day at Milford Center Prairie removing common teasel and other invasives in the right-of-way prairie. We worked with DNAP and USFWS staff for three days on Kelleys Island to conduct a complete survey of the Lakeside daisy population. We also collected Lakeside daisy seed at Holcim Quarry for restoration at the preserve. Two projects at Greenbelt Preserve and Irwin Prairie were cancelled due to rainy weather.

Lakeside daisies were also the highlight of the May 10 field trip on a great day with 11 people visiting the Lakeside Daisy State Nature Preserve, both the original and new portions of the preserve. We talked about this federally listed plant and our recovery efforts, associated plants in the preserve, the geology and alvars, as well as the glacial grooves.

Join us for a project or field trip in June and watch for the July-August schedule coming soon!

Save the date!

ONAPA Annual Meeting
Saturday, August 23, 2025

Alley Park
2805 Old Logan Road SE
Lancaster, OH 43130

Watch for more information on registration and field trips coming soon!

Keynote Speaker - Andrew Gibson - lifelong admirer of the natural world. He has spent over the last decade as a field botanist with the Ohio Division of Natural Areas & Preserves with a focus on surveying, monitoring, and managing the state’s rare flora and habitats.Andrew is a graduate of Ohio University and Hocking College with degrees in plant biology and wildlife biology. Vascular plants are his passion -- especially the realms of Cyperaceae, Orchidaceae, and Pteridophyta.

Invasive herbaceous plants primary targets of April stewardship

ONAPA was busy in April working on garlic mustard and Dame's rocket in several preserves. Fortunately garlic mustard was found in reduced numbers at each preserve, so we hope our efforts are slowly eliminating the populations. We had 6 projects at the following preserves:

April 1 - Crane Hollow (photos by Jennifer Windus), clean-up in the pine plantation
April 9 - Bonnett Pond Bog, garlic mustard & Dame's rocket in the woods
April 16 - Rhododendron Cove, garlic mustard
April 19 - Howard Collier Preserve, garlic mustard
April 23 - Clifton Gorge, garlic mustard & Dame's rocket
April 30 - Lake Katharine, garlic mustard

Seven stewardship projects completed in February and March

The ONAPA stewardship team kept busy in February and March with seven projects total. The weather cooperated for most of the projects, and we were able to accomplish some excellent habitat management. In February, we worked at Singer Lake, Travertine Fen, Killbuck Marsh Wildlife Area, and Cedar Bog, with large volunteer groups at both Travertine Fen and Cedar Bog. In March, we worked at Medway prairie fringed orchid site, Daughmer Savanna, and Wolf Run Regional Park. At all these natural areas, we cut and treated woody species. We were also able to conduct prescribed burns on hree days in March.

Three stewardship projects completed in January with no cancellations due to weather

Lakeside Daisy SNP

Bonnett Pond Bog

Lakeside Daisy SNP

Brinkhaven Oak Barrens

Despite some cold and snowy days in January, ONAPA started off the new year with three stewardship projects and did not have to cancel any of them. We appreciated the hardy volunteers and DNAP staff that joined us as we accomplished good work on these preserves all three days:

Lakeside Daisy Preserve (January 14) - red cedar removal with six people
Brinkhaven Oak Barrens (January 23) - woody species removal in the north barrens with five people (photo)
Bonnett Pond Bog (January 28) - woody species removal in the bog meadow with nine people

These were all important projects, especially Bonnett Pond Bog as we cannot work in the bog meadow unless the pond is frozen (for safe and easy access), so thankfully it was very frozen this year.

Volunteer Stewardship

Stewardship Project Reports

Member Activities

2024 Event Highlights

Stewardship
Projects

We plan stewardship projects year-round throughout Ohio and we are always looking for volunteers. We will include a short field trip on each project to see some of the preserve where we are working.

2025 Member
Field Trips

Preserve
Monitoring

Field trips are scheduled from late spring into early fall. Most are easy walks through our state's Division of Natural Area's preserves. Watch the website and Facebook page for updates.

Any state nature preserve in your area can be visited and a report completed to help inform ONAPA and the preserve managers about the condition of the preserve.