2024 STEWARDSHIP PROJECT REPORTS​
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 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.
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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
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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.
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 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).