2024 STEWARDSHIP PROJECT REPORTS
Collect seeds of prairie plants for your garden Saturday, October 5 with the help of guides
|
Prairie Seed Collecting - October 5, 10 am: Here is your chance to try your hand at growing native prairie plants. Visitors to the free Saturday event may collect all the seeds they want from Denny’s Tallgrass Prairie and learn how to establish their own prairie gardens. Several prairie specialists will be on hand to answer questions and help identify various species of prairie plants.
Participants should bring hand pruners, and containers such as paper bags in which they can deposit and label the seeds they collect. |
This “free to the public event" takes place at Denny’s Tallgrass Prairie which is a 20-plus acre prairie located in Knox County about 45 minutes north of Columbus. The street address is 6021 Mt. Gilead Road (SR95) Fredericktown, Ohio. From the junction of Interstate 71 and State Route 95, follow SR95 east just under 5 miles to the Knox County Line Just about 20 feet beyond on the North side of SR95 is the driveway where there will be an ONAPA events sign directing participants up the drive to the designated parking area. Registration is not required.
Fearless volunteers help us push through August stewardship projects
Warder-Perkins Preserve
|
Travertine Fen
|
With the continuing oppressive heat and humidity, we are grateful to our volunteers who support our stewardship efforts even when it is hot, humid, and we have strenuous work to complete. We accomplished significant habitat management at seven sites, including Warder-Perkins Preserve (to pull Japanese stiltgrass), several fens to control woody species, purple loosestrife, and cattails (Travertine Fen, Myersville Fen, Kiser Lake Fen), Daughmer Savanna (woody species), Sheldon's Marsh (flowering rush and purple loosestrife), and Honey Run Highlands Park (woody species).
Small, but mighty teams of 8-15 people at each project do an amazing job of cutting, pulling, and hauling out invasive species that are reducing diversity in our natural areas.
Small, but mighty teams of 8-15 people at each project do an amazing job of cutting, pulling, and hauling out invasive species that are reducing diversity in our natural areas.
Stewardship projects tackle a variety of invasive species on preserves in July
July was another busy month for ONAPA's stewardship team in the heat and humidity. We had eight stewardship projects controlling a variety of invasive plants: frogbit on July 9 at North Pond on Kelleys Island, Japanese stiltgrass on July 11 at Clifton Gorge, woodies including bristly locust on July 16 at Kitty Todd, woodies on July 18 at Cedar Bog, purple loosestrife and cattails on July 23 at Jackson Bog, Japanese stiltgrass on July 24 at Brinkhaven Barrens, glossy buckthorn at North Bend Bog, and black locust and autumn olive on July 30 at Honey Run Highlands Park. Quite the diversity of invasives and partners to make for an interesting month! It has been great training for our stewardship assistants.
July was another busy month for ONAPA's stewardship team in the heat and humidity. We had eight stewardship projects controlling a variety of invasive plants: frogbit on July 9 at North Pond on Kelleys Island, Japanese stiltgrass on July 11 at Clifton Gorge, woodies including bristly locust on July 16 at Kitty Todd, woodies on July 18 at Cedar Bog, purple loosestrife and cattails on July 23 at Jackson Bog, Japanese stiltgrass on July 24 at Brinkhaven Barrens, glossy buckthorn at North Bend Bog, and black locust and autumn olive on July 30 at Honey Run Highlands Park. Quite the diversity of invasives and partners to make for an interesting month! It has been great training for our stewardship assistants.
North Pond
|
Kitty Todd
|
Jackson Bog
|
June may not be traditional "dog days of summer" but it sure felt like it!
|
June was a busy month for our stewardship assistants and volunteers with some very hot, humid days. We worked on sweet clover at Chaparral Prairie (June 4), sweet clover and other invasives at Milford Center Prairie (June 18), and teasel at Daughmer Savanna (June 29).
We also visited Cranberry Bog to check out the results of our fall clearing project in the bog meadow, which is looking great. We spent three long days conducting surveys at seven sites for the Eastern prairie fringed orchid with the US Fish & Wildlife Service and other partners. We are grateful for everyone's hard work, especially on some grueling hot days. Thank you! |
|
Stewardship assistants tackled the steep walls at Miller Nature Sanctuary in search of invasive garlic mustard. (Photos by Jennifer Windus)
|
Warm temperatures and raindrops part of May activities that included seed gathering and garlic mustard pulls
May proved to be a busy month for the ONAPA stewardship team. With rain and warm temperatures, many wildflowers and invasive plants, such as garlic mustard and Dame's rocket, were ahead of schedule which caused problems for our scheduling. For example, Lakeside daisy started blooming in mid-April this year, two weeks earlier than normal, so plants were going to seed in mid-May. We had to scramble for our seed collecting and did not get as many seeds. We collected Lakeside daisy seeds for two days; these seeds will be distributed in the fall at the new section of the preserve on Alexander Pike in Marblehead. Stewardship projects were held at Miller Preserve, Lake Katharine, Clifton Gorge, Irwin Prairie, and Davey Woods to remove garlic mustard, Dame's rocket, and butterweed. Stewardship assistants tackled the steep walls at Miller Nature Sanctuary in search of invasive garlic mustard. 
Lydia and Alyssa survey Meilke Road Savanna Wildlife Area
|
April stewardship projects involve various methods of invasive plant control
|
April proved to be a busy month for ONAPA with four stewardship projects and four days of prescribed burns, helping other partners. The weather continued to be challenging so we had to reschedule two projects due to rainy weather. We worked at Fowler Woods on garlic mustard (April 16), Spring Beauty Dell (photo) with Great Parks on Amur bush honeysuckle (April 18), Collier Preserve on garlic mustard (April 20 for Earth Day), and Kendrick Woods with Johnny Appleseed Metropolitan Park District on garlic mustard (April 23). These were all busy days with plenty of garlic mustard and honeysuckle to remove! Our Earth Day project at Collier Preserve was especially fun with 17 people, including 11 students from the OSU Botany Club.
ONAPA conducted prescribed burns on five different days, one in late March at Cedar Bog and the others in April - Wolf Run Regional Park with Knox County Park District, Brinkhaven Oak Barrens with the Killbuck Watershed Land Trust, Foxfield Preserve with The Wilderness Center, and |
Cooke Family Wildlife Conservation Park and Cool Springs
Wildlife Conservation Park with the Ashland County Park District. All of these burns involved working with several partners to help them gain more experience with prescribed burning. We could not have completed all these burns without their help! |
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. |
|
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
Work party greeted with snow at North Bend Bog, Museum of Natural History property. (Photo by Jennifer Windus)
|
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). |