Ohio Natural Areas & Preserves Association

ONAPA seed collecting scheduled at 10 am Saturday, September 26, at Denny's Prairie in Knox County

The emergence of COVID-19 last spring has dramatically changed how all of us must go about our everyday lives. Until there is an effective and readily available vaccine, our best defense against this virus is social distancing, avoiding large gatherings, and the wearing of face masks. Accordingly, we at ONAPA thought it best to cancel our regularly scheduled membership field trips as well as our annual membership meeting for 2020. However, we feel we can safely go forward with our annual Prairie Seed Collecting Field Trip scheduled for Saturday, September 26 at 10 am since it can be done by participants working on their own in the out-of-doors well separated from one another, and as long as certain precautions are in place.

This year there will be no seed gathering orientation as in past years. Participants will be on their own and will be required to wear face coverings, social distance from others by at least 6 feet, except from immediate family members and friends, and provide their own collecting tools and containers. Upon parking, participants will be given an informational handout and be directed to the 20-acre collecting area. Several ONAPA members wearing ONAPA shirts will circulate around the prairie and be available to answer questions on an individual, one-on-one basis. We will have the ONAPA display available for viewing, along with ONAPA items available for a donation (shirts, hats, and bandanas).

Denny’s Prairie is located in Knox County about 45 minutes north of Columbus. Follow Interstate 71 to the Mt. Gilead/Fredericktown exit (Exit 151) at the intersection of State Route 95. Follow State Route 95 east for just under 5 miles to the Knox County line. Just beyond the county line is the driveway on the north side of SR 95.

There will be ONAPA event signs directing participants up the drive to the designated parking area. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us HERE.

Wednesday, October 7, 2020
Woody Species Control at Cranberry Bog State Nature Preserve
10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Buckeye Lake, Licking County

Now called Buckeye Lake, this lake was once a swamp that was to be converted into a reservoir to feed the Ohio and Erie Canal system. The plan did not work well because the new lake was too shallow to feed the canal for barge traffic, especially during the dry season. Strangely, it was

the impoundment of the swamp in 1830 which made Cranberry Bog so unique. As the waters backed up behind the dike, all of the big swamp was inundated and destroyed, except the very youngest and therefore most buoyant segment of the bog mat. Instead of disappearing beneath the mucky waters, as did most of the adjacent swamp forest, a 50-acre upper segment of the bog mat along the north shore stretched and expanded like a giant water-logged sponge and rose 8 feet with the new water level. No longer did the floating bog mat surround the glacial lake as is typically the case with bogs. Now the lake surrounded the bog mat, the only known such occurrence of its kind in the world.

Little habitat management has been done on the bog during the past several years and the bog meadows are severely invaded by woody species, including poison sumac. We will be working in the main bog meadow where the boardwalk is located, to open the meadow up as much as possible. Activities will include cutting woody species, hauling cut stems to brush piles, and trained volunteers or DNAP staff will treat the cut stems with herbicides.

Directions: We will be meeting at the North Shore boat ramp at Buckeye Lake State Park at 10am to take a pontoon boat to the island. Take State Route 79 south from I-70, then follow SR 79 south until the curve where you enter the state park. Park in the large parking lot and look for the boat at one of the docks to take us to the island. Be sure to register if you wish to attend this project and more details will be provided in advance. We will need to know how many people are coming to arrange for sufficient boat transportation as the state park will be providing the boat.

What to bring: Bring lunch, water, gloves, and muck boots. Herbicide treatment will be done by DNAP staff or trained ONAPA volunteers. Tools will be provided.

RSVP: Please REGISTER HERE. Online registration is important for our planning due to the pandemic. Please contact The Ohio Natural Areas & Preserves Association HERE if you have questions.

Partners accomplish much in natural areas during late summer stewardship projects

ONAPA has been busy with stewardship projects lately between Meilke Road Savanna Wildlife Area on August 26, Gallagher Fen SNP on September 5, and Cranberry Bog SNP on September 9. We worked with partners from The Nature Conservancy and Toledo Metro Parks, plus our stewardship assistants and volunteers, at Meilke Road Savanna to remove woody species in the "bowl area". At Gallagher Fen, we removed woody species in the east fen, continuing to open this excellent fen meadow and remove invasives such as common privet and glossy buckthorn. At Cranberry Bog, we removed woody species, including poison sumac, glossy buckthorn, and red maples from the eastern bog meadow. Partners from the Native Orchid Preservation & Education Society in Cincinnati helped us at Cranberry Bog.

Removing invasives at Meilke Road Savanna

Working to protect Cranberry Bog

Opened savanna at wildlife area

Cranberry Bog colorful in late summer

Myersville Fen south meadow's rare plants get help from ONAPA

ONAPA volunteers and two stewardship assistants worked with DNAP preserve manager Emily Archibald at Myersville Fen to control purple loosestrife, hairy willow herb, and invading woody species such as glossy buckthorn. The group accomplished a significant amount in the southern meadow. This work is important for maintaining the open character of the meadows as habitat for native and rare fen plants.

Sun shines on summer projects

With our four stewardship assistants on board and well-trained now, we have been busy on preserves during the summer. We are thankful we still have a small core group of volunteers joining us and have even recruited some new volunteers this season. We had volunteer projects at Clifton Gorge and Myersville Fen. We have also been working hard at Brinkhaven Oak Barrens with the Killbuck Watershed Land Trust to control Japanese stiltgrass, a relatively new invasive grass there.

In addition to invasive plant control, we:

Assisted USFWS with surveys for the Eastern prairie fringed orchid on four days;
Searched for other rare plants to update records at Pallister Preserve and Sheldon Marsh;
Collected purple loosestrife beetles from Pickerel Creek Wildlife Area to distribute at Jackson Bog.

On July 28, we partnered with Richfield Heritage Preserve to train volunteers on eradication of marsh invaders: yellow iris, non-native cattails and purple loosetrife. Interns from Knox County Park District joined RHP volunteers to learn the fundamentals from Jennifer Windus, with help from Stewardship Assistant Madison Brown.

July projects in nature preserves remove invasives to preserve space for native plants

ONAPA has been busy in July, despite the heat and humidity. We completed surveys for Eastern prairie fringed orchids on

July 7, then went to Cedar Bog SNP on July 9. Five volunteers and three stewardship assistants worked to remove woody species from the prairie and cut white cedars in some of the fen meadows. It is important to thin the white cedars in the meadows each year to keep them from shading out the rare fen meadow plants.

On Saturday, July 11, ten volunteers and two stewardship assistants worked at Jackson Bog SNP to remove purple loosestrife and clean up a downed tree in one of the fen meadows. It was a super hot day, but we accomplished a significant amount of purple loosestrife removal. We were happy to have a new volunteer, Tom Fishburn, join us too. On Thursday, July 16, six volunteers and three stewardship assistants worked with preserve manager Michelle Comer at Clifton Gorge SNP to remove invasive woody shrubs such as bush honeysuckle on the scientific side of the preserve (no photos available).

Stewardship assistants and volunteers accomplish much in preserves during June

In spite of the continuing coronavirus pandemic, ONAPA stewardship assistants and volunteers have been busy with stewardship activities and rare plant projects throughout June. We had two scheduled stewardship projects at Milford Center Prairie June 4, and Chaparral Prairie June 18. At both prairies, we worked to remove herbaceous invasives such as sweet-clover and common teasel. Small groups of volunteers, combined with our four stewardship assistants, have been effective in accomplishing much needed work on the preserves so far this season.

We also visited Cranberry Bog to check on our stewardship projects last fall and were impressed to see so many orchids, both rose pogonia and grass-pinks. We collected purple loosestrife beetles from Pickerel Creek Wildlife Area to distribute at Jackson Bog Preserve. We collected Lakeside Daisy seeds from the Lafarge Quarry to be distributed later this year on the new portion of the preserve. We pulled garlic mustard at Davey Woods and Bonnett Pond Bog.

Our stewardship assistants have been busy at Brinkhaven Barrens,

working with Randy Carmel, president of the Killbuck Watershed Land Trust, to begin control of Japanese stiltgrass. Most recently, we have been conducting surveys for the Eastern prairie fringed orchid in several locations, in cooperation with the US Fish & Wildlife Service.

Volunteer Stewardship Project Reports

For the latest Stewardship Project Reports,
CLICK HERE.

Member Activities

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CLICK HERE,

Stewardship
Projects

We have several stewardship projects planned for 2020, some of which are again on weekdays this year. We will include a short field trip on each project to see some of the preserve we are working at. RSVP HERE.

Member
Field Trips

Preserve
Monitoring

The 2020 ONAPA member field trip schedule has been put on hold due to the pandemic. Watch the website and Facebook page for updates.

Not a member? Join HERE.

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. Click HERE for information.