Pearl's Fen




Fringed Gentians at Pearl's Fen

When the last glacier, the Wisconsinin, left northwest Greene County about 10,000 ago it left some things behind.   Deposits of sand and gravel that had been encompassed by the moving ice were dropped in small to large deposits called moraines, kames, eskers . The terrain of what is now Bath Township gained a series of low rolling hills from these deposits on what was otherwise a bulldozed landscape.  The gravel and sand was derived from pulverized limestone and was (and is) limey.  Meltwater and rainwater that saturated the deposits picked up the lime (calcium carbonate) and became very alkaline.  Water, after moving through them often hit something hard, bedrock, and where the rock met the air cold limey springs poured out.  Most plants are not happy to live in cold limey mud, but the exception are sedges.  These grasslike plants thrive in these harsh conditions.  Because it is so cold and harsh that bacteria and fungi don't break things down very fast.  So when the sedges died they formed organic peat.  Over time the deposits of peat can become quite deep, 6 or more feet in some places.  These wet, limey, springwater fed wetlands are now called fens.  In the Miami Valley they are a very special type of fen called a prairie fen.  These fens were invaded by prairie plants some 6,000 years ago when western prairies covered southwestern Ohio, and many of these prairie species took up residence with the sedges, rushes and other plants that had persisted there for thousands of years.

Fringed Genitians Closed



Prairie Rattlesnake Root

Fens and their unique environment have been refuges for plants and animals that now live nowhere else in the region.  They boast extraordinary biodiversity.  Unfortunately all that organic matter also made for great farmland if one can figure out how to drain the water away.  People have gotten pretty good at this and most fens are now destroyed and growing corn or soybeans.  However, some were never drained and carry on as they have for thousands of years.  One of these is Pearl's Fen.

I first encountered Pearl's Fen in 1984,  I was looking for prairie and fen remnants based on old surveyor records.  Old records showed a fen/prairie complex going west of Byron Rd.  Looking from the car there was some swampy looking ground behind some small houses along the road.  I parked at one of the houses and asked the woman if I could look around back there.  Her name was Pearl Wegiel, and she owned the land.  Her son lived next door and he had recently built a small barn for horses and let the swampy ground serve as a horse pasture.  It was October, a fine warm day and the land became increasingly wet and peaty as I walked past the horses standing in the muck.  It was a "mound" fen.  This is a fen that sticks up from the surrounding land because groundwater pressure pushes the peat up.  This strange situation results in a wetland that is higher than the drier land around it.  It was filled with all the usual plants one can find in a high quality remnant.  The biggest thrill was the fringed gentians growing from many spots the horses couldn't reach!  The downer was that the horses has eaten and stomped most of the trees, shrubs and plants to nubs, and churned up the peat into a wet black mess.  It looked pretty bad.




Pearl's Fen Heavily Grazed by Horses in October, 1984

After a few more visits I asked the Pearl and her son if they would be receptive to the installation of a fence around the fen to keep the horses out.  They were fine with it if I came up with the cost and labor of installing it.  I measured the feet of fence that would be necessary and got a price for fence and posts from a farm supply store.  I didn't have any money and knew nothing about putting up a fence.  I asked my friend Paul Knoop if he had any ideas.  He told me that the fringed gentian was the favorite plant of Marie Aull, and we should ask her for the money.  Paul and I visited Marie at her home and after explaining the situation she pulled out her checkbook.  I bought the materials had them delivered to the fen.  For the labor I recruited some of my friends from the Dayton-Montgomery County Park District to help put it up.  We had quite a time making it work.  Putting farm t-posts into peat doesn't hold things up so we had to anchor it with existing trees.  An old fence gate from a park scrap pile served as a gate.  It seemed to work though and we anxiously awaited the next growing season to see what would happen.



Fence Showing Recovery, Summer 1985

The next growing season surpassed all hopes. Native fen and prairie plants sprang up from the seedbank/roots and transformed the pasture to a garden of rare plants. Fringed gentians, prairie rattlesnake root and many others made Pearl's Fen a delight to visit.



Pearl's Fen Late Summer, 1985





High Volume Spring That Originates on Site

In October of 1984 Paul Knoop and I arranged to take some dignitaries to the fen to see the what had been achieved.  Attending were Scott Huston (Director of Miami County Park District and a great botanist), Ralph Ramey (Director of Glen Helen), Clara Weishaupt (retired botany professor from Ohio State and author of The Vascular Plants of Ohio), Sylvia Koons (Friend to Marie Aull and MetroParks volunteer, and Marie Aull (Matriarch of Miami Valley Conservation and Horticulture).  It was a delightful day with outstanding company who enjoyed themselves.


Scott Huston, Clara Weishaupt, Sylvia Koons, and Marie Aull Visit Pearl's Fen in 1985

In 1991 botanist David Dister did an intensive botanical inventory of the fen.  He spent a season finding and identifying the plants there.  He ended up finding 167 species in 54 plant families.

Over the years Mrs. Aull made many offers to buy the fen from Pearl.  She was never interested in selling but welcomed visitors.  The fen gradually changed over the years.  The rare, diminutive plants disappeared altogether, and the site became dominated by prairie grasses and shrubby cinquefoil.  By 2003 the site was completely dominated by the native cinquefoil.  I have always assumed that this was evidence that these fens undergo their own form of natural succession and that many fen species depend on periodic disturbances.In the spring of 2003 Pearl, was admitted to a nursing home.  Bob Jurick of the BW Greenway Community Land Trust was very concerned for the future of the fen.  He did not know if Pearl still had family in the neighborhood, so he went door to door and finally located Pearl's daughter.  Bob made it known that he could help find a way to protect the fen if she decided to sell it.  After some time she contacted Bob about selling.  Bob contacted me as to how to get some funding.   I approached MetroParks Board member Irv Bieser with the problem.  Irv was on the board of the Ohio Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, and he knew a a bequest left to TNC for conservation in the Dayton area.  It was more than sufficient to cover the purchase!    Terry Seidel of TNC facilitated the purchase of the fen by The Nature Conservancy in February 2003.  Tim Leiwig, Director of The Greene County Park District agreed to apply for a Clean Ohio Grant to purchase the fen from TNC.  The grant funding was received and the fen was transferred to the Greene County Park District, now called Green County Parks and Trails in June, 2004. 

The challenge now for the fen is management.  The  fen responds well to management, and likely needs it to maintain diversity.  It's current condition as a shrubland and recent invasion by Japanese Honeysuckle indicates a management plan is needed.  This fall I attended the Natural Areas Conference in Chicago and had a tour of fens in that region.  Their prescription for over abundant shrubby cinquefoil and other shrubs is fire.  They burn their fens with great results.  That sounds like what needs to be done at Pearl's, either that or bring in a herd of horses for a while!



Pearl's Fen October 2013

Shiloh Woods Conservation Area

Shiloh Woods Conservation Area (SWCA) is a 365 acre undeveloped natural area along the Stillwater River in Montgomery County.  SWCA is located northwest of Dayton and southeast of Englewood MetroPark.  This beautiful land base contains 2 tracts of high quality upland forest, bottomland hardwood forest, meadows, shrubland, a large 80 acre planted prairie, a natural glade prairie, a pretty pond, and significant frontage on both sides of the scenic Stillwater River.  Several unmamed headwater streams flow into the park land.

Land acquisition started in 1995 and was completed in 2007.  However, a 23 acre tract now under contract will bring total acreage to 388 acres.

The story of Shiloh Woods begins with a couple who loved the land.  The Duncans donated their 57 acre wooded tract to the Shiloh Church on North Main Street.  The woods was (and is) a beauty with large upland and bottomland hardwoods, rich wildflowers, and a series of ravines.  The woods attracted the "Huck Finn of the Stillwater", naturalist Paul Knoop.  Paul was the Education Supervisor for the Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm for many years.   He thoroughly explored the Stillwater River corridor and advocated for protection of natural areas along its banks.  After discovering the "Church Woods" as he called it he made several approaches to them about the significance of the property and the living things there.  He was politely received but the tract was given no official protection.  Paul contacted me at the Park District, showed me the property and encouraged us to help protect it.   I went with him to talk to church leaders without any more results.  However, I made a point of writing a letter to them every year to make sure they knew of our interest.  The congregation and church leaders were not in agreement as to the best future of the very valuable piece of real estate.

Spring at "Duncan" Woods at Shiloh Woods Conservation Area

In 2000 we received a letter from the church announcing that the property was on the market for general sale.  An appraisal confirmed a rather high market value, and there was interest from local developers.  A stub street with full utilities borders the scenic land.  Coincidentally a grant fund was made known to the Park District (now Five Rivers MetroParks) called WRRSP.  This odd acronym stands for Water Resource Restoration Stewardship Program.  This program generates money from interest on loans made by the State to cities and jurisdictions for sewage treatment plants and sewer lines.  These needed facilities greatly improve water quality, but building them can have a negative impact on the streambanks where they are installed.  The fund sets aside funds to offset the damage with land protection along high quality rivers.  Metroparks applied for the fund to protect the Shiloh Church Woods as well as 4 other undeveloped tracts along the Stillwater River.  We were overjoyed when the 1.8 million dollar grant was awarded and we could protect these gems.  We ended up purchasing the Shiloh Church Woods for the appraised value in 2001.  WRRSP also funded the purchase of 4 other large tracts nearby including the beautiful "Wegner Woods".

Fall in Wegner Woods, Shiloh Woods Conservation Area

This woods was owned by 4 sisters.  Two wanted to protect the woods and the other two wanted to maximize profits from the sale of the land by selling to an interested real estate developer.  The issue was finally settled in 2005 with help of WRRSP and an appraisal that they all liked.
Another key property along the river was owned by a local law enforcement officer that wanted to build a country home along the river where he would raise his family.  He started the house and build a pretty pond.  Sounded good, but unfortunately he got into the unfortunate habit of  arresting prostitutes and asking them to forego the judge and pay their fine with him at a local fire station.  Of course he was caught, lost his job, lost his wife, and had to sell the land to MetroParks.  At the closing he blamed his wife saying she spent too much time with her friends!

Pond at Shiloh Woods Conservation Area

Another source of funding that helped with the rather expensive property in the Shiloh Woods area was the Clean Ohio Fund.  This fund, generated by a State bond issue approved by Ohio voters was instrumental in the purchase of 4 additional large parcels.  Much of the land adjacent to the Shiloh Church Woods was owned by the Developer Singer Properties/Harson Investments.  I visited them one day and asked them if they would be interested in selling.  The fellow chuckled and unrolled a large plan showing the whole area with streets, curbs, lots, and houses.  I left feeling pretty bummed because the old woods was doomed to be bordered by dense housing.  However, after a few weeks he called back.  In looking at their accounting they decided they would do better to sell the land to MetroParks at a fair price, take a tax deduction, and develop a commercial property instead.  Clean Ohio was available and the land was ours in 2002.

A big 80 acre tract was owned by a fruit farm business that went out of business and put the land up for sale.  It was bought by a real estate developer who wanted to make it into a residential housing plat.  Montgomery County also wanted the land for a wellfield so they bought the land from the developer for a very steep price.  They then found that is wasn't really a very good wellfield and sold it for the same price to MetroParks in 2007.  We used WRRSP funds and got the land with no out of pocket costs.  The next year Mary Klunk and her staff planted a prairie on it and now it is great grassland habitat.

Planted Prairie at former Mumma Fruit Farm, Shiloh Woods Conservation Area

Stillwater River flowing through Shiloh Woods Conservation Area

This Conservation Area has a rich diversity of habitats, wildlife, terrain and potential enjoyment opportunities by the public.  Someday it will likely be a popular MetroPark.

Thoughts on The Rambunctious Garden

Last winter I read a book written by a young biologist named Emma Marris called "The Rambunctious Garden."  It was not about gardening in gardens, but rather a new way to look at the management on natural areas.  The first part of the book very methodically whacked away at some of the basic underpinnings of conservation work that I have held dear.  I squirmed my way through this occasionally thinking defensive thoughts. The second part talked about solutions and a new way of looking at things.

The concept that Emma most effectively whacked was that of the "baseline."  I grew up reading about the glories of the wild continent that the pioneers found.  Of immense forests of giant trees, long prairies full of bison and elk, and clear streams full of fish.  In Ohio all that was pretty much lost my the mid 1800's, and most of the nooks and crannies were "lost" by the mid 1900's.  Ever since starting with the Park District in 1985 I have labored to protect land and restore it to some fraction of its former splendor.  The land itself is a collage of land and soils highly disturbed by agricultural or other human activity, land and soils somewhat disturbed, and land and soils lightly or very lightly disturbed.  We have always tried to manage for a diversity of habitats following principles of conservation biology: bigger is better, connected is better, fire is a good tool.  In retrospect we have succeeded best by managing for structure.  That means designating where forests, grasslands, thickets, and wetlands will be protected or established.  That's a challenge right there.  The further one tries to dictate the composition of these communities the tougher it is.  If the 1800 baseline is the goal, then success is only achieved when the species that were present then have returned and the non-native interlopers have been eradicated.  I know plenty of people who will be miserable in a forest or meadow crackling with life because it does not meet this goal.  Emma points out that the goal was folly in the first place:
-  Nature was not standing still then, it had always been changing.  We just weren't there to see it.
-  People have shaken the earth up like a snow globe moving species all over the planet.  These newcomers are often more suited to do well in a heavily disturbed environment than the locals.
- "Pristine" areas that have minimal disturbance are still heavily impacted by the disturbed lands around them.
-  Climate change is further modifying the world making the baseline even more irrelevant.

All this does not mean one gives up, or that our actions are not important.  It means we should float downstream instead of fighting up through impossible rapids.  In southwest Ohio most of our protected land is what is what is now being called a "novel ecosystem."  They are mutts of native and non-native species.  There is no putting Humpty-Dumpty together again the was he was.  The new Humpty can be pretty cool though.  The bobolink sings in a field of eurasian grasses and weeds.  The Coopers Hawk nabs European house sparrows at the feeder.  The woodpeckers love Emerald Ash Borer larva.  All of them seem to be more adaptable than many biologists and land managers (like me.)  Perhaps some new principles to live by:

1. Identify those areas that continue to maintain pre-settlement biodiversity.  Prioritize action against invasive species there.  However, they will only maintain themselves as-is if the processes that maintain them remain.

2. Accept new components to habitats on heavily disturbed sites.  This might sound like surrender, it is really just being realistic.  Manage them for structure and don't worry so much about their exact composition.

3. Teach children and upcoming biologists that these new novel habitats are important and beautiful.  After all, it is most of the world that we now live in.

4. Promote native species, but don't go for an impossible baseline.

Reforestation Results to Date

It's been a while since the last post.  Here is a summary of the reforestation program that started in the fall of 2011.

The realization that Emerald Ash Borer is going to have a profound effect on the forests and natural areas of Five Rivers MetroParks drove home the fact that our forests had major regeneration issues prior to the bug's arrival.  Fragmentation of the landscape, invasive species and an overpopulation of deer have been shifting what species spread and thrive.  The winners have been the invasive shrubs, trees that spread easily on the wind or by birds, and species that deer don't like to eat.  Until the last few years the biggest winner has been white and green ash.  These successful colonizers are the dominant canopy tree invading abandoned fields and subsequently growing into young woods.  We are now in the process of losing nearly all of these trees.  The losers have been mast (nut) species that by their nature only spread a short distance and are very desired by wildlife as food as seeds or seedlings.

Efforts to date have focused on gathering seed and propagating seedlings of these mast species and planting them into fields and into woods heavily impacted by EAB.  The results have been mixed.  We have tried planting seedlings of various age classes, bare root seedlings, small container seedlings, large container seedlings, planting by volunteers, planting with tree planters, and direct sowing of seeds.  Going strictly by impressions from many field inspections, here is how things seem to be going:

It seems that the best success and least maintenance comes from the planting of large containers in the spring or fall, and machine planting in the spring.  Therefore, it seems prudent to shift to these primary methods.  Direct seeding may have merit but it is too soon to tell.

Lessons Learned

• Good site prep is key.  2 sprayings may be necessary to eliminate competition and seed bank of  competition
• Tree shelters can be very effective defense against deer, but if installed poorly can kill the tree within.
• Don't plant oaks into less than full sun.  They must have light.
• Volunteers must use proper planting technique.
• Tree shelter stakes must be driven 18" into the ground to stay lodged.
• Tree shelters should be inspected 2x per year to clear weeds and straighten if necessary.
• Bare root tree roots should not have more than momentary contact with the air or sun.
• Dipping bare roots into micorhizzal dip helps growth rate.
• Select tree planting locations before volunteers arrive.  
• The bigger the tree planted the more likely it will survive and grow.  Getting above the tall vegetation quickly is key.
• Plan ahead to ensure the tree species matches the planting site.