What
would
Northeast
Ohio's
forests
look
like
if
we
could
take
a
time
machine
back
to
the
turn
of
the
19th
century
before
settlers
arrived?
How
have
the
forces
of
urbanization
changed
the
landscape
from
1800
to
now?
What
should
restoration
goals
for
the
county's
carefully
preserved
"Emerald
Necklace"
park
system
look
like
in
the
future?
A
BW
biology
professor,
Dr.
Kathryn
Flinn,
and
junior
BW
biology
major
Tylor
Mahany
'19,
dug
into
those
questions
through
"witness
tree"
research
that
relies
on
observations
recorded
in
handwritten
field
books
from
the
area's
very
first
land
surveys.
Meticulous
maps
and
analyses
of
such
records
at
the
Western
Reserve
Historical
Society
were
compared
to
a
more
recent
survey
of
forestland
completed
by
Dr.
Constance
Hausman,
a
plant
and
restoration
ecologist
with
the
Cleveland
Metroparks.
Fewer
beeches,
more
maples
The
findings,
just
published
in
the
international
Journal
of
Vegetation
Science,
show
tremendous
changes
in
the
region's
plant
communities
over
the
past
200
years.
Back
then,
the
area
was
94
percent
forested
with
most
woodlands
dominated
by
beech
or
oak
trees.
Most
of
the
remaining
areas
were
covered
by
wetlands.
By
2014,
development
had
swallowed
up
half
of
the
wetlands
and
reduced
forested
areas
in
the
county
to
less
than
20
percent.
Maple,
elm
and
cherry
trees,
which
bounce
back
easier
and
faster
after
disturbances,
have
replaced
many
of
the
once-dominant
native
trees,
and
the
region's
vegetation
has
become
more
homogeneous,
losing
much
of
its
original
variety.
The
records
also
suggest
a
lack
of
permanent
Native
American
settlements
in
the
area
at
the
time,
with
just
one
Indian
"sugar
camp"
noted,
and
offer
no
evidence
of
vegetation
shaped
by
frequent
fire.
Takeaways
for
restoration
Flinn
says
this
type
of
study,
which
reveals
a
"gold
mine"
of
information
about
how
past
land
use
choices
have
impacted
natural
plant
habitats,
helps
to
predict
the
likely
consequences
of
future
urban
development.
"Understanding
how
plant
communities
change
over
time
is
important
to
consider
when
we
think
about
protection
and
restoration
of
natural
ecosystems,"
says
Flinn.
"Many
ecologists
have
mined
early
land
survey
records
to
help
inform
restoration
goals,
but
this
type
of
mapping
had
never
been
done
before
in
Cuyahoga
County."
One
takeaway
from
the
data?
"Conservationists
might
explore
future
land
acquisitions
with
beech
and
oak
forests,"
Flinn
notes.
"Those
types
of
additions
would
make
protected
parklands
more
representative
of
the
pre-settlement
era
when
half
the
forests
were
dominated
by
beech
trees
and
a
third
were
oak."
Determined
detective
work
Flinn
and
Mahany
teamed
up
to
start
the
research
during
their
first
semester
on
campus.
Mahany
was
a
freshman
in
the
newly
appointed
Flinn's
biology
class.
"It
took
a
lot
of
detective
work
and
perseverance
on
Tylor's
part
to
locate
and
decipher
the
surveyors'
line-by-line
observations,"
Flinn
explains.
"Some
of
the
private
Connecticut
Land
Company
survey
records
held
at
the
Western
Reserve
Historical
Society
were
on
microfilm;
others
were
in
handwritten,
hand-sewn
journals
from
the
1700s."
Swamps
and
snakebites
The
survey
notes
painted
a
vivid
picture
of
the
surveyors'
daily
adventures
as
they
navigated
the
wilderness
of
northeast
Ohio,
crossing
swamps
and
thickets
"as
thick
set
as
the
hair
on
a
dog's
back,"
battling
diseases,
snakebites,
gnats
and
mosquitoes,
and
hunting
for
meat.
Mahany,
who
recently
presented
the
findings
at
the
2018
Ohio
Natural
History
Conference,
adds,
"The
detail
that
the
surveyors
went
into
about
the
trees,
soils
and
land
was
amazing.
I
learned
a
lot
about
the
power
of
field
observations,
and
how
they
could
be
useful
centuries
later."
Flinn
is
scheduled
to
present
the
research
at
two
public
forums
in
the
fall:
-
the
Western
Cuyahoga
Audubon
Society
September
4
at
Rocky
River
Nature
Center,
and
-
the
Kirtlandia
Society
September
8
at
the
Cleveland
Museum
of
Natural
History.
