I have written a new book, Native Landscapes of the Dayton, Ohio Region. It is available for free to anyone who might be interested in this topic. Here is a link to it!
https://online.fliphtml5.com/ewzgw/bylz/#p=1
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The book has a companion poster that can be found here:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fgr2w28kl5vszjak7akzx/NativeLandscapes_DaytonOhioRegion-Final-STANDARD.pdf?rlkey=sjv0qazwjfz05qc4zhmukc3f5&st=slpgsjal&dl=0
https://beavercreekwetlands.org/gifts/
I have expanded the area of sw Ohio where I have digitized the public land survey system records,
posted here:
ArcGIS - 1800 NATIVE LANDSCAPES OF DAYTON, OHIO REGION
Here is a static version of the project that has been made into a posterNativeLandscapes_DaytonOhioRegion-Final.pdf (dropbox.com)
Lastly, here is a manuscript for a book about the topic, placed here in case a careening beer truck flattens me.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ijcuhkjcboy3xz8th3ehy/AGEIG1aj5n9Wxi4WBFmqoMg?rlkey=yu6miixakplid5m3u1e1pqyba&dl=0e.
Native Landscapes of the Dayton, Ohio
Region:
1800 and Today
Table of Contents
Chapter
1- The Dayton, Ohio Region Today
Chapter
2- Mapping a Lost World
Chapter
3- The Cooks in the Kitchen
Chapter
4- A Burning Realization
Chapter
5- Native Landscapes of the Dayton, Ohio Region
Chapter
6- Some Modern Lifeboats
Chapter
7- Land Stewardship Challenges
Appendix
A- Rules Governing Prescribed Fire in Ohio
Appendix
B- Index of Plants and Animals
Bibliography
Notes
Introduction
This book describes and illustrates the native
landscapes of the Dayton, Ohio region of southwestern Ohio as they were in 1800,
serves as a guide to some of the remaining fragments of these landscapes, and discusses
the challenges to their ongoing care. These
topics have been a passion for me for most of my adult life, driven largely by
the joy and wonder that I feel when I am in these wild places, and being
involved with some of them has been a rewarding way to spend a career and
retirement.
Our European forbears came to North America with a
culture and way of life that centered on individual land ownership, which is an
effective system to increase the prosperity, comfort, and wealth of landowners,
and build a strong nation, things that have been achieved in the United
States. To do this though, we had to cut
an ancient and complex quilt of forests, streams, prairies, and other living
systems into tiny pieces, each managed separately for the benefit of individual
landowners. Most people today know very
little about what was lost to achieve our success, or why the remaining
fragments of our natural heritage are so important.
The environmental movement that took shape in the
1960’s, a response to the lost quilt and the degradation of our shared water,
air, and soil, resulted in laws that began to protect our shared environment,
and some of our remaining natural spaces.
It is understandable perhaps if this response to the overwhelming human
impact on the land was to limit human impacts on the newly protected places to
“take only pictures, leave only footprints”.
The American Indians, who had been here for over 12,000 years, had a
very different world view than the colonizing Europeans or the American
conservationists of the 20th century. For the native people, land ownership was not
considered or desired, the landscape was a common, and they managed much of it
intensely, especially by their use of fire.
This changed the land into forms and combinations that could not
otherwise exist, some of which we now revere, like savannas, prairies, and open
woodlands.
I’m still optimistic that our country will leave
behind the frontier culture of over-exploitation, and the more recent one of
over-protection and neglect, and people will live and participate in a world
with more wild places and wildlife. The
scraps of wild, diverse nature that are left are just that, but they are
wondrous nonetheless. They too would be
gone if not for people that took action to protect them. I’m hoping this book will inspire at least
one person to take such an action to protect some wild space, or restore one
that is already protected, and, in the words of a ‘70’s folksinger, be “part of
the movement, part of the growing, part of beginning to understand.”[1]
Chapter 1- The Dayton,
Ohio Region Today
The Dayton, Ohio Region (DOR) in this guide
encompasses about 2, 212 square miles and all or part of what are now ten
counties, an area drained primarily by the Great Miami River and its
tributaries the Mad and Stillwater Rivers, as well as a small portion the upper
Little Miami watershed. The climate is
temperate, with some 40 inches of rainfall per year annually, and about one-half
of the year free of frost. Geologically,
the bedrock is sedimentary, primarily limestone that formed in warm tropical
seas between 416 and 488 million years ago when what is now the DOR was on the
equator. Several times over the last two million years
massive continental glaciers have covered the region, scouring the land as they
advanced, but leaving behind hills and ridges of gravel and sand after they retreated
to the north. The DOR is especially endowed with these deposits because here
two separate lobes of the last glacier came together, each of them depositing
the debris they were conveying. The DOR
was also endowed with broad valleys made by rivers that predated the glaciers,
and these the ice sheets and their meltwaters filled with gravel and sand. The glaciers covered most of the rest of the land
with layers of unsorted clay, silt, and sand along with some larger cobble and
boulders, a blanket known as glacial till.[2]
When Ohio was established
as a state in 1803 over 12,000 years had gone by since the last glacier had retreated. During this time plant and animal life had continuously
adapted to the changing climate and the unchanging geology, as well as the
impacts of flood, drought, windstorms, and fire, resulting in the vast hardwood
forests, prairies, wetlands, and abundant wildlife experienced and documented
by early explorers and settlers. After
statehood, these native landscapes were rapidly cleared and converted to
agricultural production, with 83% of the state’s forests cleared by 1883, and 90%
by 1940.[3] Wetland losses also reached 90%, and
prairies mostly reduced to a few forgotten scraps along railroad beds and in pioneer
cemeteries.
Since
then, the sciences of biology and ecology were born and grew, leading to a
greater understanding of non-human life, and the nature of the few spaces that
had been spared from the axe and plow.
Thanks in part to this increased awareness, Americans started becoming
concerned about the destruction of natural resources and natural beauty in the
early 20th century. The U.S.
Forest Service was created in 1905, the National Park Service in 1916, and the
Fish and Wildlife Service in 1940.
|
Existing Land
Uses in the Dayton, Ohio Region
|
In
the DOR, the Miami Conservancy District was created to control flooding after
the disastrous 1913 flood, and established reserves around their new flood
control dams, protecting some 3000 acres of parkland. In 1929, Hugh Taylor Birch donated 700 acres
containing the exceptional forest and limestone gorges adjacent to Yellow
Springs to Antioch College, naming it after his daughter Helen. Another private conservation effort was
initiated by philanthropist Clayton Brukner, who established a 165-acre
preserve and nature center on scenic forest land along the Stillwater River in 1974. Ohio established a new system to protect
green space on a county and regional scale in 1917, park districts. These independent government agencies are
usually funded with a tax levy and governed by a volunteer board of park
commissioners. They have proven to be
effective entities to protect and pay for natural areas and parks. The first park district in the DOR, the
Montgomery County Park District, now known as Five Rivers MetroParks, was
formed in 1963. Others followed
including the Miami County Park District, Greene County Parks & Trails,
National Trails Parks and Recreation District, Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Park
District, and Centerville-Washington Park District. Other conservation initiatives that have
thrived in the DOR are private, non-profit land trusts, including the Little
Miami Conservancy, Beaver Creek Wetlands Association, BW Greenway Community
Land Trust, Three Valley Conservation Trust, and Tecumseh Land Trust. These organizations have collectively
protected tens of thousands of acres of natural areas and farmland in the
region, much of it still private property.
Most
of the land that these entities have protected for conservation had been
private farmland, and much of it had lost at least some of its native diversity
after 150 years of plowing, logging, and livestock grazing. These protected lands now make up less than
5% of the region, and within them are most of the remaining fragments of our
native landscapes that have mostly escaped these impacts and retained their
biological diversity. Protected lands
are now surrounded by a sea of row crops, development, or heavily disturbed
lands, putting them at risk from new threats like erosion, invasive species,
and over-browsing by white-tailed deer. Land stewardship, the art and science of
caring for these natural areas and preserving the biological diversity that
they contain, is vital if they are to persist.
To
provide effective care it is essential to have some knowledge of their
condition before the landscape was changed, how they came to be, what
maintained them, and how this foundation relates to today’s challenges
Chapter
2- Mapping a Lost World
The Americans that settled the
Dayton, Ohio Region after 1800 were focused on transforming the natural
landscapes to agricultural ones, and except for scattered anecdotal accounts,
did not document the composition or distribution of the native landscapes that
were there when they arrived.
Fortunately for later biologists and conservationists, the United States
government did make these records, somewhat accidentally, and these can be
accessed to document 1800 conditions.
The Public Land Survey System created
three types of records, each of which shed light on the vegetation that the
survey teams passed through:
|
plat
map for township 5, range 12 |
Plat Maps-
Surveyors produced maps for each of the townships that they surveyed that
included the section lines, rivers and streams, boundaries of prairies, and
other features deemed to be important (Figure 6.) These maps can be viewed and downloaded from
the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (https://glorecords.blm.gov/).
|
PLSS Field Note with Line Description and Witness Tree Documentation
|
Witness Trees-
Within the line descriptions the surveyor also documented specific trees,
usually one or more along the line and two at the corner. These “witness trees” were identified to
species or genus, and their trunk diameter estimated. At the corner the surveyor would measure the
bearing angle and distance of two trees to the corner.
In 1966 the Ohio State University and
the Ohio Biological Survey published a map titled Original Vegetation of
Ohio at the Time of the Earliest Land Surveys. This effort by biologist Robert Gordon and
cartographer Hal Flint, was based largely on the analysis of PLSS records by
Gordon combined with earlier work by botanist Paul Sears, Ecologist Edgar
Nelson Transeau, and several of Transeau’s post-graduate students at Ohio State
University.[5]
These efforts used the tools available
|
1966
Map of “ORIGINAL VEGETATION OF OHIO” published by the ohio biological
survey and the ohio state university |
This project re-evaluated the PLSS
data for the DOR, focusing on a smaller area than the earlier work, placing a
greater emphasis on section line descriptions, and use of GIS (Geographical
Information System) software. This
technology allows for accurate plotting and analysis of spatial data like the
early survey records, once they are “digitized”, allowing for a more detailed
and accurate depiction and analysis of the survey records than was possible in
the previous efforts. Two-dimensional features from plat maps, like
prairie boundaries, were drawn as “polygons” in GIS that are “georeferenced” to
place them in the correct geographical orientation. Section line comments were incorporated into a
georeferenced “line” file, and witness tree data were added to a “point” file.
The Dayton, Ohio Region included all
or part of 82 PLSS townships. After the
data from all of these were merged into single polygon, line, and point files
they could be overlain with modern digital data including topography, soil
moisture, soil type, and floodplain boundaries in GIS. Because surveyors did not collect information
from the interior of each square-mile section, the boundaries of the native
landscapes were “interpolated”, or estimated, based on these modern layers. In many cases, plant communities would have
been more complex on the ground than these interpolations, but PLSS records do
provide a revealing depiction of the dominant vegetation type within each
square-mile section, and when combined, for the entire Dayton, Ohio Region.
|
Interpolated
Vegetation Boundaries
|
Section Line Descriptions
Transposed onto Plat Map
native
landscapes of the dayton, Ohio region in 1800. NUMBERS DENOTE MODERN REMNANTS DESCRIBED IN
CHAPTER 6.
Chapter
3- The Cooks in the Kitchen
For
some 2,500 years before 1800, the DOR’s temperate, moist climate had remained
relatively stable, and was well suited to deciduous trees and vegetation that
lie dormant for half of the year, but grow profusely in the spring and summer. Vegetation had also adapted to the complex
geological landscape of the region.
Within the boundaries set by these two “head cooks” there were three
variables that were most responsible for the diverse native landscapes documented
in 1800: succession, soil moisture, and fire.
|
APPROXIMATE FOREST SUCCESSION PROCESS
WITHOUT DISTRUBANCE IN THE DAYTON, OHIO REGION BEFORE 1800 |
Soil
Moisture-
The gravel hills and gravel-filled valleys left behind by the glaciers in the
DOR drained rainwater quickly and tended to be drier than the rest of the
landscape, except where they were constantly saturated with groundwater, and
here they were wetter. Lowlands along
rivers and streams were alternately flooded and then dry over the course of a
year. Where glaciers left behind a flat
landscape, they also left behind clay soils where rainwater was slow to
drain. These different types of soil moisture
supported different groupings of plants, each species of which had its own
preference and tolerance for moisture.
Soil
moisture has long been known to be very important in determining plant
communities in Ohio (and everywhere else), but it is has become apparent that
there is more to this than meets the eye.
Ecologists and natural historians of the 20th century who
studied and mapped the distribution of forest
communities observed that some, like beech-maple forests, were found in moist
coves or flat, poorly drained places, while others, like oak-hickory forests,
were found on dry hilltops or gravelly soils.
The assumption was that these were “climax” communities adapted to these
different environments.[7] These were accurate observations,
but as it turned out, not necessarily valid conclusions. In the 21st century it has become
clear that the trees and forest communities of eastern North America that were
once believed to be “climax” communities were actually still going through the
long, slow process of natural succession.
Shade-tolerant trees like sugar maple and American beech, once thought
to be limited by insufficient moisture, are becoming dominant on drier sites, and,
as shade intolerant trees like oaks reach the end of their lifespans without
replacing themselves, the forest compositions shift in a process called
“mesophication”.[8] A good example of this change is the decline
of white oak, a species of great importance in the eastern United States, both
ecologically, and economically, as a source of lumber. White oak was once one of the most abundant
forest trees throughout the eastern United States, including the DOR, and a
component of many forest types that had been thought to be self-sustaining. This species is now failing to reproduce across
much of its range, and is rapidly declining, a symptom of the expulsion of a
forgotten cook from the kitchen, fire.[9]
Fire- Oak trees have little tolerance for
shade, but they are very good at surviving or recovering from fire. They have thick bark that can withstand low
intensity fires, and the ability to rapidly resprout from stored energy in
their roots if fire destroys everything above ground. Their leaves are also
designed to be serve as fuel after they fall.
Fallen oak leaves dry quickly, and fit loosely together in the leaf
litter, allowing air/oxygen to permeate. This gives an oak forest the potential
to carry a ground fire from October through March in dry conditions, but they
are especially flammable in the fall, when warm temperatures and low rainfall
coincide. Trees and forests like this
are referred to by forest ecologists as “pyrophilic”. Conversely, sugar maple and American beech, two
of the most abundant shade-tolerant trees in the DOR in 1800, are what forest
ecologists call “pyrophobic”. These
trees are tolerant of shade but have little tolerance for fire, and are usually
killed if exposed to it sufficiently.
When their leaves accumulate on the forest floor in the autumn, they
decompose more rapidly than pyrophilic trees, and generally lay flat, making a
mat of leaf litter that is more likely to retain moisture and less likely to
carry a ground fire. These two groups of
trees have each selected a strategy that is either dependent on the presence of
fire, or dependent on the lack of it.
Over time the presence of fire increasingly favors pyrophilic trees, and
its absence increasingly favors pyrophobic ones.
It is curious that
some of the DOR’s most common forest trees and landscapes in 1800 were
dependent on fire, when the environment was not likely to produce a source of
ignition. The only “natural” ignition
source in the DOR is lightning, which is/was a common occurrence in spring and
summer in Ohio and the DOR. Lightning
seldom ignites fires though, because soil moisture is usually high in these
seasons, leaf litter is minimal, and the lightning is usually accompanied by
rain, collectively making ingnitions rare.
Conversely, the fuel supply for a fire in October and November is good,
provided by a fresh fall of leaves, and the weather is generally dry, but there
are few thunderstorms. The answer to
this riddle has only become accepted in the last several decades because it has
had to struggle past some incorrect assumptions about the fire cook’s assistant
that had also been expelled from the kitchen, the American Indian.
Chapter 4- A Burning Realization
This
new analysis of public land survey records for the Dayton, Ohio Region in 1800
documents the widespread occurrence of plant communities that are known to be
fire-dependent- prairies, barrens, savannas, oak woodlands, and in our region,
oak-hickory forests.[10]
Like elsewhere in the United States, it has become clear that American
Indians in Ohio, for thousands of years before statehood in 1803, had applied
fire to the landscape in the fall of the year when the soil and vegetation were
dry, and that this activity had a major role in shaping the vegetation that was
observed by early explorers, pioneers, and naturalists.[11] In the United States, this realization
that many of our native landscapes were dependent on indigenous fire has had to
struggle past a widespread belief that the New World before the voyages of
Columbus was a pristine wilderness, and that the resident American Indians had
little impact on the land on which they lived.
This mistaken belief, the “pristine myth”[12] is not difficult to find in early
historical accounts like this one of the arrival of the first group of pioneers
to what is now the City of Dayton, in 1795:
We
can easily imagine the loneliness and dreariness of the uninhabited wilderness
which confronted the homeless pioneer families as they arrived by water or land
at Dayton. The unbroken forest was all that welcomed the Thompson
party, and the awful stillness of night had no refrain but the howling of the
wolf and the wailing of the whippoorwill. The spring was late and
cold, but though at first the landscape looked bare and desolate, before many
days the air was sweet with the blossoms of the wild grape, plum, cherry, and
crab-apple, and the woods beautiful with the contrasting red and white of the
dogwood and redbud or of elder and wild rose, and the fresh green of young
leaves. The woods were full of wild fruits, flowers, and nut-bearing
trees and bushes.[13]
Long
before the Miami valley was visited by white men, the country between
the Great and Little Miami rivers, and bounded on the south by
the Ohio and on the north by Mad River, was used only as a
hunting ground. No Indians have lived on this land since 1700. Probably for a
century before Dayton was laid out, no wigwam was built on the site
selected by the original proprietors. The town lay just within this immense
game preserve, and was, previous to the invasion of the whites, the home of
buffaloes, elks, deer, bears, wild cats, wolves, panthers, foxes, and all the
animals and birds of the temperate zone, which literally swarmed in the
forests.[14]
In
1969, The Ohio State University published The Natural Vegetation of Ohio in
Pioneer Days, by Robert Gordon, the first comprehensive documentation of
the vegetation of Ohio. This publication
became a classic for Ohio field naturalists, providing a baseline for further
research, and greatly increasing public understanding of Ohio’s natural
history. However, this important work
concluded that American Indians had little influence on the vegetation of Ohio
before statehood, mainly because their populations were believed to be too
small to have much effect:
…As
every school-boy knows, they lived largely by hunting and fishing, making use
of wild nuts and fruits in season…Limits to population of prehistoric Indians
were many. It is easy to suggest crop
failures due to native pests of maize, malnutrition, accidental poisoning and
suicide, death from falling timber during violent windstorms, and accidental
drowning or consummation by forest fires”[15]
Another
classic for Ohio natural historians was published in 1979 by the Ohio Academy
of Science called Ohio’s Natural Heritage. Like the previously mentioned work, this one
opened many eyes to the wonders of wild Ohio, and included excellent
photographs, illustrations, and text written to reach the general population.
However, the book continued the narrative of Ohio as an untouched wilderness,
little affected by the people that had lived there for so long:
…Today,
as Ohioans walk through the second-growth woodlands and the few small tracts of
preserved virgin timber, they can only try to imagine the dark and forbidding
grandeur of this forest- the harborer of darkness, strange beasts, and hostile
Indians, which Ohio settlers fought and, at least for a time, conquered.[16]
…. The Indians apparently had little impact on
fish and game populations…It is believed that the elk and the buffalo were gone
before many whites arrived, but during settlement times the balance of the
wildlife community was intact…[17]
…Prairies
in the glaciated western and north-central sections of the future state were
permanent openings in the forest- some were several miles in length. And there were short-term natural openings
created by tornadoes, deadfalls, and fires set by lightning (and possibly some
set by Indians).[18]
These
depictions of the dangerous and uninhabited wilderness encountered by pioneers
in Ohio and the DOR were written long after the land had been converted to
farmland and towns, but writers that were actually there in the early 1800’s
experienced a different reality. This vivid description of indigenous burning
in the early wildlands of the Midwest was penned by an English farmer named
William Faux, who travelled to America in 1818 and undertook a journey into the
interior through Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois:
The
season, called the Indian summer, which here commences in October, by a dark
blue hazy atmosphere, is caused by millions of acres for thousands of miles
around, being in a wide-spreading, flaming, blazing, smoking fire, rising up
through wood and prairie, hill and dale, to the tops of low shrubs and high
trees, which are kindled by the course, thick, long, prairie grass, and dying
leaves, at every point of the compass, and far beyond the foot of civilization,
darkening the air, heavens and earth, over the whole extent of the northern and
part of the southern continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and in
neighborhoods contiguous to the all-devouring conflagration, filling the whole
horizon with yellow, palpable, tangible smoke, ashes, and vapour, which affect
the eyes of man and beast, and obscure the sun, moon, and stars, for many days,
or until the winter rains descend to quench the fire and purge the thick ropy
air, which is seen, tasted, handled, and felt.
So
much for an Indian summer, which partakes of the vulgar idea of the
infernal. Why called Indian? Because these fires seem to have originated
with the native tribes, and are now perpetuated by the White Hunters, who by
these means start, disturb, and pen up the game, and destroy the dens of both
man and beast, and all this with impunity.
Tomorrow,
through floods and flames, I shall endeavor to make good my desperate way to
the retreat of my good friend, John Ingle, in Indiana… We rode all day through
thick smoke and fire, which sometimes met in pillar-like arches across the
road, and compelled us to wait a while, or turn aside…[19]
A
similar account, from western Pennsylvania in 1803, conjures up similar
imagery:
We
remarked, with regret and indignation, the wanton destruction of the noble
forests. For more than fifty miles, to
the west and north, the mountains were burning.
This is done by the hunters, who set fire to the dry leaves and decayed
fallen timber in the vallies, in order to thin the undergrowth, that they may
traverse the woods with more care in pursuit of game. But they defeat their own object; for the
fires drive the moose, deer, and wild animals into the westerly parts, and
destroy the turkies, partridges and quails, at this season on their nests, or
just leading out their broods. An incalculable injury, to, is done to the
woods, by preventing entirely the growth of the trees, many of which being on
the acclivities and rocky sides of the mountains, leave only the most dreary
and irrecoverable barrens in their place. [20]
On
October 29, 1796, surveyor Andrew Ellicot, travelling by boat down the Ohio
River, made this observation near the town of Gallipolis:
The
evening became calm, and the atmosphere again loaded with smoke, occasioned by
the dead leaves and grass, over a vast extent of the country being on fire,
which during the night, illuminated the clouds of smoke and produced a
variegated appearance beautiful beyond description. Our smoky weather in spring and autumn, is
probably the effect of fires extending over the vast forests of our country.[21]
This
account from Salem Township in Champaign County, described indigenous burning
in the DOR around 1800:
The barrens and dry prairies were covered with wild grass,
which, in summer, grew to an incredible height, and furnished fine pasture for
thousands of buffalo, elk, and deer before the intrusion of the white man upon
their rich domain. After this grass
became dead ripe, or was killed by the frost in the fall of the year, and
became dry enough to burn, the Indians, at a time agreed upon by their chiefs,
would place themselves with their guns upon the high timbered land adjoining
that upon which the grass grew, and at a signal given by the Captain, the squad
would set fire to the grass, and the wild animals of all kinds, which lay there
concealed, would be suddenly aroused from their quiet slumbers and run for
safety to the high ground, and there meet death by the rifle and the red
man. Great numbers of deer were killed
in this way by the Indians even after the commencement of the settlement of the
country by the whites. The Indians would
invariably give the white settlers at least a week’s notice of their intention
to burn the grass at a certain time, so they could protect their fences and
cabins by plowing a few fresh furrows around them. [22]
These
accounts of indigenous burning no doubt documented actual events, but they were
also colored by the biases, prejudices, and ignorance of the authors. A perspective from one of the native people
who lit such a fire would have been different had it been recorded, but can
perhaps be found in the words of a modern American Indian author, quoting her
father’s lesson to his grandchildren:
The
land gives us so many gifts; fire is a way we can give back. In modern times, the public thinks fire is
only destructive, but they’ve forgotten, or simply never knew, how people used
fire as a creative force. The fire stick
was like a paintbrush on the landscape.
Touch it here in a small dab and you’ve made a green meadow for elk; a
light scatter there burns off the brush so the oaks make more acorns. Stipple it under the canopy and it thins the
stand to prevent catastrophic fire. Draw
the firebrush along the creek and the next spring it’s a thick stand of yellow
willows. A wash over a grassy meadow
turns it blue with camas. To make
blueberries, let the paint dry for a few years and repeat. Our people were given the responsibility to
use fire to make things beautiful and productive- it was our art and our
science.[23]
These landscapes that were dependent on regular fires, flamescapes,
did not persist without fire to manage them. The underlying geology alone could not
perpetuate them, but, as in this observation from Champaign County, it did
increase the likelihood of dry fuel in the fall that would carry a fire, if
humans supplied the ignition.
…A wide extent of these comparatively dry and
untimbered lands was found in Salem, the eastern portion of Urbana and the
southern section of Union Township. In
Salem, the land still known as “the barrens” but is to-day considered by
resident farmers as comprising the garden spot of the county. The “settling-up” and cultivation of the
country interfered with the annual burnings of the grass, a common practice
both with the Indians and the first settlers.
This practice kept down the growth of young timber, which took a
vigorous growth as soon as the fires ceased to be kindled….[24]
The
concept that indigenous burning had a major impact in much of North America began
to take shape in 1952, when an anthropologist named Omer Stuart attempted to
publish a manuscript in which he documented the extensive written accounts of early
explorers and pioneers that described the use of fire by American Indians
throughout the continent. Stuart
concluded that nearly any vegetation that could be burned was burned by native
peoples, and for good reasons: Creating
and maintaining habitat for game like bison and elk, production of wild fruits
and nuts from thickets, and easy travelling through open forests. His manuscript was rejected by editors and
scientists of the day, until finally published in 2002, years after his passing
in 1991. Although there is still some
debate as to the scope of indigenous burning, its widespread impacts and
importance are now accepted by academicians and conservation professionals.[25]
Indigenous burning once impacted much of the Dayton, Ohio
Region
Chapter
5- Native Landscapes of the Dayton, Ohio Region
Fourteen native landscapes from 1800
were identified and plotted in this analysis, and are here described. Bold numbers at the end of each description
key to a specific modern location, described in Chapter 6, where anyone can
experience a living example of that landscape.
|
Oak
leaves persist through the winter and fit loosely together, allowing them
to dry and burn more easily. |
Oak-Maple Forests-
The oldest and largest trees in these forests were usually oaks and
hickories. When storms or old age
removed one of these colonizers, the gap that was created was filled by trees
with more shade tolerance, like white ash, black cherry, yellow poplar, and
American elm. Sugar maple, which has
even more shade tolerance, can colonize without canopy gaps and increases over
time. When it becomes a co-dominant in
the canopy the forest is categorized here as oak-maple. (7, 8, 9, 19)
|
large oak surrounded by younger sugar maples in an
oak-maple forest |
Mesophytic Forests-
The last species to colonize an oak-maple forest was the American beech. When beech trees reach maturity and become a
dominant part of the canopy and the original understory-intolerant oaks and
hickories are also still common, the forest is designated here as “mesophytic.”
Although they could be several hundred years old, these forests were
still progressing through natural succession. (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 21)
LARGE
WHITE OAK (GRAY) AND SMALLER, YOUNGER AMERICAN BEECH (SILVER) IN MESOPHYTIC
STAND
Beech-Maple Forests-
Mature, closed canopy forests dominated by American beech and sugar maple, where
surveyors made no mention of understory-intolerant oaks, hickories, black
walnut etc. in line descriptions. Other
species present were those that could colonize gaps in the canopy caused by
storms, such as white ash, American and slippery elm, yellow poplar, and black
cherry. These forests, notable for their rich variety
of spring wildflowers, were likely our oldest ones, and seldom influenced by
fire (1, 2).
|
Beech
and maple leaves lay flatter on the forest floor than oaks, causing them to
retain moisture, decompose more quickly, and resist fire. |
Oak Woodlands-
Open oak-hickory or oak-maple forests lacking an understory and a midstory,
with a canopy cover of 51-100%. These
diverse landscapes required periodic surface fires every 5-15 years to maintain
them.[29] Oak woodlands were easily traversed, provided
access to fallen mast and more efficient hunting in improved habitat for large
game (11).
This account from Clark County
provides one account of what these areas were like:
North of the site of Springfield, for fourteen
miles, upon the land which is now thick with woods, there could not, from 1801
to 1809, have been found a sufficiency of poles to have made hoops for a meat
cart. The forest consisted of large trees, with no undergrowth, and the ground
was finely sodded [30]
This account also suggests that some
oak-hickory forests mapped in this project were actually oak woodlands where
surveyors made no description of understory conditions.
Prairies- These
were native grasslands with a diversity of grasses and flowering plants, mostly
growing on glacial outwash deposits along the corridors of the Mad and Little
Miami Rivers. These were mesic, or moist
grasslands that often became dry in the late summer and fall, and were
distributed in scattered patches that varied in size from less than an acre to
over ten square miles. Prairies formed in the “hypsithermal
interval”, a period of hot dry climate between four and six thousand years ago
when much of western Ohio become open grassland. After the climate became cooler and wetter
prairies could only persist where annual or biennial fires kept them free of
encroachment from woody plants. Like the
larger prairies further west, the prairies along the Mad and upper Little Miami
Rivers were populated by bison, elk, and other prairie wildlife before
statehood[32] [33]. Prairies sequester carbon in the soil and,
over time, created the dark, fertile soils from which they grew (13,14). Xeric, or dry prairies were found where local
soil conditions were especially dry, such as steep south facing slopes with
sand or limestone near the surface.
|
SAND
RIDGE PRAIRIE, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, A XERIC PRAIRIE REMNANT ON A GLACIAL
KAME. THE SAND SLOPE FACES SOUTHWEST |
|
SWEET CRABAPPLE AND AMERICAN PLUM |
|
BARREN REMNANT, PRIVATE PROPERTY, GREENE
COUNTY, OHIO |
|
pipevine swallowtail on whorled milkweed |
Wet Prairie and Fens-
Like prairies, these open wetlands mostly grew from glacial outwash deposits
along the Mad and upper Little Miami River systems. In some, soils were constantly saturated with
groundwater, and supported sedges, rushes, and a diversity of flowering plants. Others were wet from surface flooding in
winter and early spring, but dry in summer and fall, supporting grasses and flowering
plants that thrive in these conditions
Where strong alkaline springs created
a flow of cold water that is highly charged with dissolved calcium carbonate
(lime), a community called a fen formed.
In the Midwest these are sometimes called “prairie fens” since they are
usually adjacent to wet prairies and have many species in common with
them. A large percentage of Ohio’s
prairie fens are found in the valleys of the Mad River and the upper Little
Miami River in the DOR, where gravelly glacial deposits are common. These unique wetlands contain many of Ohio’s
rare species of plants and animals.
Although most were drained long ago, several excellent examples of wet
prairies and fens remain on protected land (11,15,16).
Swamp
Forests- Upland closed canopy forests on
flat lands that were poorly drained with shallow pools in the winter and spring.
Common components were black ash, white ash, American elm, swamp white oak, pin
oak, shellbark and bitternut hickories, and American beech. Sites classified as “willow thickets” by
surveyors were most likely an early successional stage of swamp forest (5b,
16, 17, 18).
trees
in swamp forests often have a shallow root system with wide bases to buttress
them against strong winds
Mixed Thickets-
Large thickets of shrubs, small trees, and varying amounts of mature trees were
mostly documented in large patches on hilly land in the valley of the
Stillwater River in Montgomery and southern Miami County. Surveyors described vegetation here in
general terms like “brush”, “briars”, and “thick underbrush”. Most were surrounded by oak-maple forest that
also had a brushy understory. The surveyor notes are unclear as to whether
these lands had been deforested by storms, fire, or clearing.
Windthrown
or Standing Dead Timber- Small to very large tracts with
timber blown down by severe winds/tornados, or standing dead trees killed by
unknown causes. A large windthrow in western Clark County had felled the trees
on nearly 10,000 acres in 1800, making that area impassable by early surveyors.
OLD-GROWTH MESOPHYTIC FOREST DESTROYED BY TORNADO IN 2019,
SINCLAIR PARK, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, OHIO
Timber Killed by Fire- Surveyors
documented over five square miles of forest land where trees had recently been
killed by fire. All but two of these
tracts were ingrown with thick brush indicating that several years had passed
since they were exposed to fire. Much of
the burned acreage in the region, including one tract that was burning as the
surveyor team passed through it, was located within four miles of the historic
Shawnee town of Calaakafi, or “Old Chillicothe” on the Little Miami
River, suggesting that residents of this town were conducting prescribed fires
right up to the time of the land surveys.
Surveyor records are not detailed enough to determine what size of trees
were killed by fire, but the description of dead, burned trees as “timber”
suggest that at least some fires were larger than low ground fires.
The
land in the Dayton, Ohio Region contained an astounding 170 square miles of
fire-dependent prairies, savannas, oak woodlands and barrens that had been
exposed to fire in the two decades prior to 1800, most of it between the Mad
and Little Miami Rivers. An additional
297 square miles was oak-hickory forest, a community that requires ground fire
every 10-35 years to maintain it.[35]
These
communities were consistent with the locations of known historic American
Indian towns and settlements that were present in the late 1700’s [36],
a correlation also found in western New York State, where oak savannas usually
occurred within 15 km (9.2 miles) of town/village sites.[37]
However,
this association is not consistent with most historical accounts, which
interpret American Indian populations in this region before statehood somewhat
differently. A common historical
narrative holds that southern Ohio and the DOR was well populated by American
Indians before 1650, until the Iroquois, or Haudenosaunee people from what is
now western New York, decimated or drove away these populations in the mid-late
1600’s to decrease competition for beaver pelts that were desired by Europeans:
Ohio
became the domain of the Iroquois by right of conquest, and for about sixty
years it remained an empty forest wilderness devoid of permanent
settlements. At the most, Ohio was
visited by hunters from the surrounding tribes, but none wanted to arouse the
wrath of the Iroquois by taking up permanent residence in their conquered
territory…Ohio stayed virtually empty of Indian settlements until the early
1700’s, when tribes began to move into the area for a variety of reasons, the
most significant being the loss of their homelands.[38]
American
Indians in this depiction did not return to reside in the DOR until the 1770’s,
when Shawnee people, retreating from the American advancement, established Calaakafi
on the Little Miami near its confluence with Massie Creek, Pekowefi, or
“Piqua Town” on the Mad River, and other towns on the upper Mad River.[39] This narrative may be correct, and these
towns were in fact established only two or three decades before the public land
surveys, but the flamescapes that covered much of this region in 1800 could not
have been established by a few towns in so short of a time, they were
indicators of recent and long-term American Indian land management. For instance, the diverse prairies here were
quite extensive in the river valleys, and had their origin in a period of dry
climate between four and six thousand years ago.[40] Prairies require fire every one to two years
to maintain them, so it follows that indigenous fire had been applied
continuously in the Mad River and Little Miami River Valleys for at least four
thousand years. [41]
The surveyor data also suggest that
much of southern and eastern Montgomery County and the valleys of the
Stillwater and Great Miami Rivers in Miami County were once influenced by
indigenous fire. The abundant oak-maple forests
here were a mixture of pyrophilic and pyrophobic trees indicative of a forest
community that had developed with the presence of fire, but was changing with
its absence. The small prairie remnants
scattered within the extensive floodplain forests growing on outwash deposits
along the corridors of the Stillwater and Great Miami Rivers in 1800 were
likely fragments from this time when indigenous fire was a controlling factor
in these river valleys.
Chapter 6- Some Modern
Lifeboats
This chapter highlights twenty-one protected natural
areas within the Dayton, Ohio Region that are some of the best places where the
public can easily experience remnants of the region’s native landscapes. The numbers in bold in these descriptions
correspond to the map at the end of Chapter 2.
|
|
|
rue anemone |
|
LARGE-FLOWERED
TRILLIUM |
1.
2.
3.
Garbry Big Woods Sanctuary-
Miami County Park District, 2540 E Statler Rd, Piqua, OH. This old-growth forest remnant varies
considerably with minor changes in topography, appearing variously along the
main boardwalk loop to be mesophytic, beech-maple or hardwood swamp, but
overall, is mesophytic.
|
spring beauties |
|
yellow trout-lily |
|
Red-headed woodpecker (photo by tom hissong) |
4.
Englewood MetroPark Region-
Englewood MetroPark, Aullwood Garden MetroPark, and the National Audubon
Society’s Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm together protect over 2,100 acres of
connected wildlands in the Stillwater River Valley in Montgomery County,
including these three small but high-quality remnants of native landscapes:
|
PUTTYROOT
ORCHID IN BLOOM
(photo by Tom Hissong) |
|
bloom of puttyroot orchid, photo by tom hissong |
Aullwood Garden (5C)
This 31-acre garden and rich mesophytic forest remnant was a gift to Five
Rivers MetroParks by gardener and conservationist, Marie Aull.
5.
|
SNOW
TRILLIUM |
|
GREAT
MIAMI RIVER, TAYLORSVILLE METROPARK |
6.
|
the
yellow spring (photo by robert nolin) |
|
birch
creek valley in glen helen |
7.
|
THE
WRIGHT STATE WOODS IS A LIVING LABORATORY FOR BIOLOGY STUDENTS (photo by Don
Cipollini) |
8.
|
WHITE
TROUT LILY |
|
sessile
trillium |
9.
Waldruhe Park-
Miami Township of Montgomery County, 10000 N Springboro Pike, Miamisburg, OH,
northeast section. A small but rich patch of old-growth oak-hickory
transitioning to oak-maple forest, including some very large trees and low
sections of swamp forest.
|
PILEATED
WOODPECKER |
|
wild
hyacinth |
|
appendaged
waterleaf |
10.
|
|
11.
12.
13. Stillwater
Prairie Reserve- Miami County Park District, 7790 N
Rangeline Rd, Covington, OH, Prairie Loop Trail via River Trail. A small but rare and diverse prairie remnant
along the Stillwater River, this site is likely a remnant from a time when
these grasslands were much more common in the Stillwater Valley.
|
BALTIMORE
ORIOLE |
|
STIFF
GENTIAN (PHOTO BY TOM HISSONG) |
|
(PHOTO
BY TOM HISSONG) |
14.
|
QUEEN
OF THE PRAIRIE |
|
Northern Water Snake |
|
MICHIGAN
LILY |
|
queen-of-the-prairie |
15.
|
swamp
forest |
|
round-leaved
sundew |
|
showy
lady’s-slippers |
|
fen
meadow and white cedars |
16.
17. Koogler
Wetland and Prairie Reserve- Greene County Parks & Trails,
2735 Beaver Valley Rd, Dayton, OH. A meandering boardwalk loop goes through
several wetland habitats including swamp forest in the southern portion. This park is one of many conservation sites
in the Beaver Creek Wetlands.
|
photo by debby mckee |
18.
|
VIRGINIA BLUEBELLS AND BELLWORT AT BRUKNER NATURE
CENTER |
|
STILLWATER RIVER FLOODPLAIN FOREST AT BRUKNER NATURE
CENTER |
|
MATURE OAK-MAPLE FOREST
AT BRUKNER NATURE CENTER |
20. Mad
River Gorge & Nature Preserve- National Trails Parks and
Recreation District, 2710 Dayton Springfield Rd, Springfield, OH. The west section
of Mad River Trail provides views of mature floodplain forest with large
trees along the Mad River, as well as the scenic limestone walls of the south
side of a wide gorge.
|
mad
river gorge (photo by carol kennard) |
21. Twin
Creek MetroPark- Five
Rivers MetroParks. Enter from the small
parking lot located at10239 Eby Rd. This
5.5-mile hike traverses deep ravines and floodplain adjacent to Twin Creek, and
passes through some of the DOR’s biggest and best examples of old mesophytic
and 2nd bottom floodplain forest.
|
2nd BOTTOM FLOODPLAIN FOREST AT TWIN CREEK
METROPARK |
|
MATURE MESOPHYTIC FOREST AT TWIN CREEK METROPARK |
Chapter
7- Land Stewardship Challenges
|
prescribed
fire at huffman prairie state natural landmark |
The
only simple solution for public entities wishing to use prescribed fire on
their properties is good planning and preparedness. This means that they must have the
professionals on staff to jump through the bureaucratic hoops, receive the
necessary training and experience, acquire the needed equipment, and
successfully implement the burns. An
alternative is to engage a private environmental firm to plan and carry out the
burn on a contractual basis. Either way,
it takes resources and commitment to land stewardship.
Today,
the Dayton Region has been mostly cleared of its native landscapes and
converted to row-crop agriculture and urban and suburban development, with less
than 5% remaining that is protected and open to the public. Stewardship, the ongoing commitment and
action program required to maintain the beauty and diversity of these lifeboats,
is vital for their survival. However,
providing for the study and management of these natural areas can be a
challenge. Public agencies and
municipalities that are responsible for them usually have multiple
responsibilities, and land stewardship doesn’t demand attention like buildings,
grounds, or recreational facilities etc., where needs and deficiencies are
quickly noticed by the public and addressed by the staff. Unfortunately, land stewardship is seldom a
priority for the public, which generally accepts what they see on the nature
reserves as the way things should be.
For this reason, it would actually be quite helpful if park users who
appreciate the importance of stewardship would speak up, in a helpful way, to
administrators of natural areas if they see things that need to be
addressed. Unfortunately, many
agencies/municipalities that have conservation properties have no one on staff
that is both trained in conservation work and assigned to a position that
prioritizes it.
The
protected natural spaces in the DOR are threatened by three main issues;
invasive species, over-browsing by white-tailed deer, and erosion.
Invasive
species are plants and animals from other parts of the
country or world that are proliferating at the expense of native ones, particularly
where native communities have been damaged by past land uses. Generally, if a plant community retains much
of its native diversity, soil, and support processes it can benefit from a
one-time removal of invasives. In
moderately or highly disturbed communities, one-time removal projects look good
when completed, but within a few years the invasive species often returns if
there is no corresponding effort to address the underlying problem,
re-establish native species, or follow-up on the initial work.
|
CALLERY PEAR |
|
LESSER
CELANDINE |
|
reed
canary grass |
|
THE STATE OF OHIO HAS DESIGNATED 63
SPECIES OF PLANTS AS INVASIVE, INCLUDING THE FOUR SPECIES ABOVE THAT ARE
PARTICLARY PROBLEMATIC IN THE DOR. (https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-administrative-code/rule-901:5-30-01 |
White-tailed
deer, a beloved species for many people, can be destructive
to native plant life and forest regeneration if their density is too high. Deer management can be very controversial,
with widely varying opinions about it depending on whether you are a homeowner,
hunter, suburban driver, farmer, or just someone who loves animals.
Wildlife
biologists evaluate deer populations in different ways depending on the desired
goal. For instance, if the desire is to
maximize a fall harvest, the goal is to maintain the “biological carrying
capacity” a density that avoids deer starvation but maintains a density of deer
that eliminates many native plants as well as small
|
DJ
CASE & ASSOCIATES, DJCASE.COM, USED WITH PERMISSION |
Erosion
of protected lands comes two main varieties, streambank and trail. Streambank erosion is usually the result of
greatly increased stormwater runoff into streams that cuts into the banks,
creating steep, bare slopes, and undermining tree cover. The art of streambank erosion management has
come a long way, and most problems have a solution if the landowner has the
will and the financial resources to address the problem.
|
bank
repair using natural materials secured with cables (CENTERVILLE-WASHINGTON
PARK DISTRICT) |
eroded
bank on suburban stream
|
ERODING
HIKING TRAIL ON HILLSIDE |
Since
1937, much of the funding for statewide conservation and land stewardship in
the United States has been paid for by a national 11% excise tax on firearms,
ammunition, and archery equipment. The
Pittman-Robertson Act mandated the distributions of these funds to state fish
and game departments for research, surveys, management of wildlife and/or
habitat, and acquisition or lease of land.
If a project is approved for one of these purposes, a state agency first
completes it with their own funding, and then requests reimbursement from the
U.S. Department of the Interior, which will reimburse up to 75% of the money
spent. These agencies typically obtain
their 25% share from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses. The conservation funding stream created by
the Pittman-Robertson Act has enabled countless conservation efforts in the
United States that has benefited both game and non-game wildlife since 1937,
but it does have its drawbacks. It is a
system that prioritizes the welfare of consumable fish and game species for the
direct benefit of an increasingly small percentage of the American
population. Wildlife agencies are less
inclined to hire people or conduct stewardship activities for non-game species
if these efforts do not contribute to their income stream. This problem has been successfully addressed
in other states in a variety of ways through conservation sales taxes, outdoor
gear taxes, and real estate transfer taxes. [43] Ohio needs a solution like one of these to
adequately fund land stewardship at a local and state level.
Going
forward, land stewardship will be even more important if we as a society are to
have any hope of not just caring for the small remaining fragments of a past
world, but developing a healthy and sustainable relationship with the modern
one around us. A good place to begin in
the DOR would be for the owners and managers of the precious places described
in Chapter 6, and the people of the region, to commit to the effective, ongoing
stewardship of these twenty-one sites. This would mean controlling invasive
species, managing deer populations, checking erosion on streams and trails, and
maintaining disturbance-dependent habitats with regular burning and
mowing. We can’t go back to being 18, or
return the land to its condition in 1800, even if we wanted to, but we can emulate
the stewardship commitment of the people that lived on this landscape for so
long before us:
A
lot of time you hear people say that the best thing people can do for nature is
to stay away from it and let it be.
There are places where this is absolutely true and our people respected
that. But we were also given the
responsibility to care for the land.
What people forget is that means participating- that the natural world
relies on us to do good things. You
don’t show your love and care by putting what you love behind a fence. You have to be involved. You have to contribute to the well-being of
the world.[44]
Appendix A - Rules Governing Prescribed
Fire in Ohio
The
State of Ohio regulates open burning in the Ohio Revised Code (https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-administrative-code/rule-3745-19-04
and https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-administrative-code/rule-3745-19-05)
that includes a general ban on open burning in place for much of the year. However, a waiver can be obtained from the
chief of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry, if specific
information is provided:
· The
date of the request
· The
applicant’s name and address
· The
address or geographical coordinates where the person/entity wishes to kindle a
fire
· The
persons certification that the site where the kindled fire is to take place has
a site plan that includes required weather parameters.
· The
fuel types to be burned (e.g., grass, leaves, brush, etc.)
· The
equipment and personnel to be used
· Site
monitoring plans from the time when the kindled fire is prepared to when it is
fully extinguished
· Worker
and general public safety considerations
· Notification
plan for emergency services in the event of an emergency
· Any
contingency plans.
· Permits/approvals
from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (in the CGMVW this is the
Regional Air Pollution Control Agency)
· A
permit issued by the chief of the fire department having jurisdiction of the
site of the proposed burn.
Other
provisions in the Ohio Revised Code require that:
· A
fire in or near any woodland, brushland, or land containing tree growth or in
any place from which the fire is likely to escape unless all leaves, grass,
wood, and inflammable material surrounding the place where the fire is kindled
have first been removed to a safe distance and all other reasonable precautions
have been taken to prevent its escape from control.
· No
burn will be conducted within 1000 feet of an off-site home or structure
· No
fire shall be left until extinguished or safely covered.
In
addition to the above, burns on public lands, or private lands owned by someone
else, must be led by an individual who is a Certified Prescribed Fire Manager
as defined in the Ohio Revised Code (https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-administrative-code/rule-1501:3-13-01). These requirements include:
· A
minimum of six hours of training in wildland fire suppression
· A
minimum of twenty-four hours of training in prescribed fire management
· Prior
professional experience in the amount of at least ten wildfires on at least ten
days, ten prescribed fires on at least ten days, or a combination thereof
Other requirements of Ohio Certified
Prescribed Fire Managers include:
· Within
one-hundred and twenty days of a completed burn, provide the chief of the
division of forestry with a report of the results of any burn activities using
a form approved by the chief of the division of forestry
· Within
thirty days of a completed burn, provide the chief of the division of forestry
with a report about any escaped fires resulting in a response from emergency
service personnel or that could result in any criminal or civil actions.
Appendix B
Index of Plants and Animals
American Beech (Fagus grandifolia)
American Elm (Ulmus americana)
American Hazelnut (Corylus americana)
American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)
American Beaver (Castor canadensis)
American Bison (Bison bison)
Amur Honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii)
Appendaged Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum appendiculatum)
Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula)
Bitternut Hickory (Carya cordiformis)
Black Ash (Fraxinus nigra)
Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)
Black Oak (Quercus velutina)
Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)
Blue Ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata)
Boxelder (Acer negundo)
Bur Oak (Quercus macrocarpa)
Callery Pear (Pyrus calleryana)
Eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides)
Elk (Cervus elaphus)
Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis)
Grape (Vitis spp.)
Haw, or Hawthorn (Crataegus spp.)
Hickory (Carya sp.)
Large-Flowered Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum)
Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna)
Michigan Lily (Lilium michiganense)
Oak (Quercus sp.)
Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)
Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor)
Pin Oak (Quercus palustris)
Prairie Cord Grass (Spartina pectinata)
Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea)
Prickly Ash (Zanthoxylum Americanum)
Puttyroot Orchid (Aplectrum hyemale)
Pumpkin Ash (Fraxinus profunda)
Puttyroot (Aplectrum hyemale)
Queen-of-the Prairie (Filipendula rubra)
Red oak (Quercus rubra)
Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus)
Reed Canary Grass (Phalaris arundinacea)
Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia)
Sessile Trillium (Trillium sessile)
Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata)
Shellbark Hickory (Carya laciniosa)
Showy Lady’s Slippers (Cypripedium reginae)
Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)
Snow trillium (Trillium nivale)
Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)
Spotted Joe-Pye Weed (Eutrochium maculatum)
Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica)
Still Gentian (Gentianella quinquefolia)
Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum)
Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor)
Sweet Crabapple (Malus coronaria)
Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)
Tussock Sedge (Carex stricta)
Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica)
White Ash (Fraxinus americana)
White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis)
White Oak (Quercus alba)
White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
White Trout Lily (Erythronium albidum)
Wild Hyacinth (Camassia scilloides)
Wild Plum (Prunus americana)
Yellow Trout Lily (Erythronium Americanum)
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NOTES
[1] A lyric from
"Calypso" by John Denver, from the
1975 album Windsong.
[2] Gregory A.
Schumacher et al., “Geology of the Dayton Region in Core and Outcrop: A
Workshop and Field Trip for Citizens, Environmental Investigators, Geologists,
and Educators “Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological
Survey Open-File Report, 2012, 3, available online at the Ohio Department of
Natural Resources Web site,
https://geosurvey.ohiodnr.gov/portals/geosurvey/PDFs/OpenFileReports/OFR_2012-1.pdf
[3] Lafferty, Michael
B. Ohio’s Natural Heritage. Columbus: Ohio Academy of Science, 1979,
274.
[4] The Official Ohio
Lands Book. United States: Auditor of State, 2002, 9.
[5] Gordon, Robert B.
The Natural Vegetation of Ohio in Pioneer Days. Columbus: Ohio State
University Press, 1969, 15-19.
[6] Stuckey, Ronald
L. “Robert Benson Gordon (1901-1981): A Biographical Sketch Emphasizing His
Studies of Natural Vegetation Mapping.” Bartonia, no. 48 (1981):
34–41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41609863.
[7] Braun, E. Lucy,
Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America.
New York and London: Hafner Publishing Company, 1967, 526-528.
[8] Nowacki GJ,
Abrams MD, 2008. The demise of fire and
"mesophication" of forests in the eastern United States. BioScience 58 (2): 123-138.
[9]
Abrams, Marc D. 2003. Where Has All the
White Oak Gone? BioScience, Volume 53, Issue 10, October
2003, Pages 927–939, https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2003)053[0927:WHATWO]2.0.CO;2
[10] Cohen JG, Wilton
CM, Enander HD, Bassett TJ. 2021. Assessing the ecological need for prescribed
fire in Michigan using GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis: Igniting fire
gaps. Diversity 13(3), 29-31.
[11] Omer C. Stewart; Forgotten
Fires: Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness, ed. Henry T.
Anderson and Kat Lewis (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2002), 70–312.
[12] Denevan, William M. “The Pristine
Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492.” Annals of the Association of
American Geographers 82, no. 3 (1992): 369–85.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2563351.
[13]
Steele, Robert W. and Mary Davies Steel, Early Dayton: With Important
Facts and Incidents From the Founding of the City
of Dayton, Ohio to the Hundredth Anniversary 1796-1896
(Dayton, Ohio U.B.
Publishing House; W.J. Shuey, Publisher; 1896)
[14] Crew, Harvey W.,
History of Dayton, Ohio with Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Some of its
Pioneer and Prominent Citizens. Dayton,
UNITED BRETHREN PUBLISHING, HOUSE PUBLISHERS 1889, 9.
[15] Gordon, Robert B.
The Natural Vegetation of Ohio in Pioneer Days. Columbus: Ohio State
University Press, 1969, 20-21.
[16] Lafferty, Michael
B. Ohio’s Natural Heritage. Columbus: Ohio Academy of Science, 1979, 5.
[18] Lafferty, 8.
[19] Faux, W.,
Memorable Days in America, Being a Journal of a Tour to the United States,
Principally Undertaken to Ascertain, by Positive Evidence, the Condition and
Probable Prospects of British Emigrants ; Including Accounts of Mr. Birkbeck's
Settlement in the Illinois, London : W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 1823: 232-234.
[20] Harris, Thaddeus
Mason. The journal of a tour into the territory northwest of the Alleghany
Mountains; made in the spring of the year 1803: with a geographical and
historical account of the state of Ohio; illustrated with original maps and
views. Boston: Manning & Loring, 1805:22-23. ISBN:9780608420189, 0608420182
[21] Ellicott, Andrew,
William Fry, Jay I. Kislak Collection, and Joseph Meredith Toner
Collection. The journal of Andrew Ellicott: late commissioner on behalf
of the United States during part of the year , the years 1797, 1798, 1799, and
part of the year 1800for determining the boundary between the United States and
the possessions of His Catholic Majesty in America: containing occasional
remarks on the situation, soil, rivers, natural productions, and diseases of
the different countries on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Gulf of Mexico: with six
maps comprehending the Ohio, the Mississippi from the mouth of the Ohio to the
Gulf of Mexico, the whole of West Florida, and part of East Florida: to which
is added an appendix, containing all the astronomical observations made use of
for determining the boundary, with many others, made in different parts of the
country for settling the geographical positions of some important points, with
maps of the boundary on a large scale, likewise a great number of
thermometrical observations made at different times, and places.
Philadelphia: Printed by William Fry, 1814. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/19001311/, 8.
[22] Beers, W.H. &
Company, The History of Champaign County, Ohio: Containing a History of the
County; Its Cities, Towns, Etc.; General and Local Statistics; Portraits of
Early Settlers and Prominent Men; History of the Northwest Territory; History
of Ohio; Map of Champaign County; Constitution of the United States,
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[23] Kimmerer, Robin
Wall. 2015. Braiding Sweetgrass. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed
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[24] Beers, 213.
[25] Abrams MD, Nowacki GJ, Hanberry BB. 2022. Oak forests and woodlands as indigenous
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[26] McEwan, Ryan
W.1*; Hutchinson, Todd F.; Long, Robert P; Ford, D. Robert & McCarthy,
Brian C., Temporal and spatial patterns in fire occurrence during the
establishment of mixed-oak forests in eastern North America, Journal of
Vegetation Science 18: 655-664, 2007 © IAVS; Opulus Press Uppsala.
[27] Palus, James D.,
P. Charles Goebel, David M. Hix, Stephen N. Matthews, “Structural and
compositional shifts in forests undergoing mesophication in the Wayne National
Forest, southeastern Ohio”, Forest Ecology and Management, 2018, 430: 413-420. ISSN 0378-1127, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2018.08.030.
[28]
Cohen et al., 29.
[30] Howe, Henry, LL.D., Historical Collections of Ohio, Vol 2,
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[31] Cohen et al., 30.
[32] Howe, 397
[33] Gist C,
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JR Weldin & Co. , 51.
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009833465
[34] Cohen, 30.
[36] Lewis RG, Dawley
WM. 1902. A map of Indian towns, camps, and trails in the Virginia Military
District and south-western Ohio. Ohio History Connection Archives/Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p267401coll32/id/23924.
[37] Tulowiecki SJ,
Robertson D, Larsen CPS. David Robertson
& Chris P. S. Larsen. 2019. Oak savannas in western New York State, circa
1795: synthesizing predictive spatial models and historical accounts to
understand environmental and Native American influences. Annals of the American
Association of Geographers 110(1): 184-204.
https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2019.1629871
[38]
Misencik, Paul R.., Misencik, Sally E., American Indians of the
Ohio Country in the 18th Century. United States: McFarland,
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[39] Sugden J. 1997.
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[40] Meszaros, G.,
& Denny, G.L. (2017). The Prairie Peninsula. Kent: The Kent
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[41] Cohen JG, Wilton
CM, Enander HD, Bassett TJ. 2021. Assessing the ecological need for prescribed
fire in Michigan using GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis: Igniting fire
gaps. Diversity 13(3): 100.
https://doi.org/10.3390/d13030100
[42] Jed Meunier &
Colleen M. Sutheimer
https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/sites/default/files/topic/ClimateChange/PrescribedFireCarbonDynamics.pdf
[43] National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, https://www.ncelenviro.org/resources/state-and-wildlife-agency-funding/
[44] Kimmerer, Robin
Wall. 2015. Braiding Sweetgrass. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed
Editions, 363.
