Scenes from a Covered Bridge

Let us ponder on lovely and peaceable things.  My best advice is to go forth into nature, breath deep and re-set your inner compass. The Stoics offer some wisdom for times of unrest.  Go within your heart and mind.  Immerse yourself in good thoughts and mental images. 

You have power over your mind - not outside events. 

Realize this, and you will find strength. 

                                                        Marcus Aurelius

A fall photo from the covered bridge within the Mohican State Park and Forest reminds me to simply be. Today will continue as tomorrow and this river will flow.  Know that good exists in the world.  We only need to look within ourselves for love and kindness. 

Mohican Covered Bridge  
Click here for map

Offering you peace like a river...

A Day in the Life...

This post could be named as "A Day in the Life of an environmentalist."  But rather, let's focus on the important things- calling it "A Day in the Life of the Environment."

Dr. Jim Bissell, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Dept. Botany

The day starts out at a property protected by the North Central Ohio Land Conservancy.  Jim Bissell had already found a rare grass, an Andropogon  (Elliot's Beard Grass) and had moved on to the wetland.  He was scrutinizing the water cress- something just didn't seem right.  Is this a rarity, too?

Jim brought a team of elites: Dave Kriska, Judy Semroc, Larry Rosche and others to comb through the land trust property for a complete documentation, including possible rarities.  It is our job to discover the secrets this land has held in silence as it has remained undeveloped, except for one close-call with a timber company.

Appalachian Azure, in Mid-Ohio?

 As we wandered through the giant Skunk Cabbage a large, or rather largish for a blue, butterfly flitted by.  Dr. Bissell had asked if we ever had Appalachian Azures here, based on the botany.  I had dismissed them as being out of range.  And yet, like a phantom one appears.  Judy Semroc is the butterfly expert of this crowd, and we both feverishly photo document the lep.  This was too good to be true.  And we will see if it is...

Steve McKee Displays a frond of Blunt-lobed Woodsia

 Another find!  A few miles away, while gathering for a press conference, Steve McKee stumbles into the largest and only 3rd population of the Blunt-lobed Woodsia in the county.  Steve has only seen this plant in ones-and-twos prior to today.  Here he discovers a thriving population.

Many life-times of botanists, entomologists and other scientists have made and continue to make new discoveries in Mohican and Malabar.  We are still finding great discoveries, and sadly today we are gathered at this very location for fear of what we might lose.

The press corps roll footage and take notes under the  towering canopy.

 Ohio State Parks, including Mohican and Malabar are currently on the block for fracking and timbering.  In an unprecedented grab for money, the political powers in Ohio believe mining the parks for resources is a way to "save" them.  Who knows what rare fern, butterfly or grass could be forever lost, before it has even been found.

A press conference was held to announce the  Coalition to Protect Ohio Parks.  Please click on this link for more information.  Columbus Dispatch coverage here.

Portrait of a Rough-winged Swallow

The day ended in hush evening bird song, along the Clear Fork River.  Wood Thrush and Veery set the stage for this photo of a Northern Rough-winged Swallow settling in for the night.  I had watched a pair of swallows hawking for insects along the river.  My view from on the old covered bridge afforded this Monnet-esque view with the dappled river as a background.

Day draws to an end, and those of us who commune with nature pray,  It will not the end of days for Mohican, as we know it.

Sycamore, Warblers: Mohican State Forest

Mohican State Forest is a lovely place to visit any time of year, but spring time unfolds its special charms. Along the riparian corridor, deep in the Mohican Gorge, sycamore trees line the edge of the steep rock and Hemlock covered slopes. Greg and Leslie Cornett, and I recently took a most enjoyable stroll along the northern trail.


............ Photo by Greg Cornett

A first of the year migrant, this charming little Yellow-throated Warbler was perched at our eye level- from our perch high above the river on the famous covered bridge. Dancing from limb to limb to search the crevices of the Sycamore's exfoliating bark for spiders and other tasty fare, he was quite the show stopper.

A Rough-winged Swallow stopped by the same Sycamore to rest from its many forays, up and down the Clear Fork River in a quest for flying insects.

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The spring ephemerals were still on display, and the Covered Bridge Trail was lined with Dutchman's-breeches, Dicentra cucullaria as well as its fragrant cousin Squirrel Corn, Dicentra canadensis.

Leslie peered into the foliage where we last heard the calls of a Black-throated Green Warbler as we were about to climb those exposed tree roots, which create a stairway to the next level of the forest. It eerily looked like something straight out of a Tolkien novel.

The higher elevation boasted a display of Long-spurred Violets, Viola rostrata which we had not seen at the river level. Exaggerated nectar tubes curve gently out from the back side of this violet. Most violets are difficult to sort by species, but the long-spurs easily set this one apart from all others.

And as a Weedpicker is likely to do, we gathered the garlic mustard along the trail, carrying it out of the forest. Garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata is a non-native species with poor manners and a pushy way of crowding out our native flora. Every little bit pulled and carted away is a step towards a healthier ecosystem, and a better spring flora display in the future.

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Hope you find your way to this woodland wonderland, and feel free to help yourself to any of the Garlic Mustard we might have missed!