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June 10, 2004
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June 10, 2004 |
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Counting Glen’s plants and animals
On Saturday, nearly 100 area residents hiked the trails with expert naturalists to learn that a daddy longlegs is not a spider, butterflies generally land with their wings open, Norway maples are an invasive resident tree and the uncommon long-tailed salamander can be found in the Glen. Residents joined 30 professional entomologists, botanists, ornithologists, zoologists and the staff at the Glen Helen Ecology Institute for its first 12-hour Bioblitz to take inventory of life in the 1,000-acre preserve. From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., naturalists from Ohio State and Cedarville Universities, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Ohio Department of Natural Resources and experts from other area nature preserves led groups through the trails to identify as many different species as possible. Butterfly expert Eileen Roberts led a hike through the South Glen to identify white cabbage, skipper, Eastern swallowtail and pearl crescent butterflies. Biologist John Silvius took participants on a tree tromp to identify the Glen’s various habitats and the trees that grow in them. Stream conservationist Sarah Hippensteel led a group that studied the aquatic insects in Birch Creek. Naturalists also led hikes identifying mosses, fungi, wildflowers, birds, wetland amphibians, spiders, reptiles and owls. By the end of the day at least 300 species of plants and animals had been counted, which, according to some experts at the Bioblitz, indicates the Glen has a relatively healthy and stable ecosystem. Some, such as Ohio State researcher Richard Bradley, believe the Glen is more than just an average nature preserve.
“The Glen is unusually diverse, there’s no doubt about that,” said Bradley, who has come to the Glen for 10 years to catalogue for his Ohio Spider Survey. He said that he has found 175 species of spider in the Glen, more than in any of the other eight preserves around Ohio he has surveyed. Spiders are a relatively good indication of the ecological health of a habitat because they are near the top of the insect food chain, Bradley said. The Glen has had the advantage of continuous protection since 1929, when Hugh Taylor Birch donated most of Glen Helen to Antioch College. That kind of longevity, along with the multitude of different habitats the Glen provides, benefits species diversity, Bradley said. The bioblitz concept has been used by many nature preserves to take inventory of the species for planning as well as for historical record keeping, said Beth Krisko, the Glen Helen staff member who organized Saturday’s Bioblitz. In its 75 years, the Glen has never fully catalogued its resources, said Krisko, who came to the Glen four years ago to help inventory the preserve’s plants. “If you know what you have, then you can plan better and determine if you’re providing for the species’ needs,” she said. Taking inventory of the Glen is the first step to establish a resource management plan, and it allows Glen stewards to decide, for instance, whether to try to clear invasive honeysuckle bushes without regard to other plant life or to pluck them out while preserving species growing nearby, Bob Whyte, the director of the Glen Helen Ecology Institute, said. Knowing what is there and what is missing can inform decisions about whether to reintroduce native species or allow an area to restore itself, he said. “You can’t put together a resource management plan if you don’t know what you have,” Whyte said. “That’s like designing a business plan for a company without knowing what resources are available and what kind of business you are.” Though many bioblitzes involve just scientists, the Ecology Institute wanted the public to participate in an effort to get more people involved in making informed decisions about the Glen’s future, Whyte said. “Overall the Glen is pretty healthy, but it’s a matter of what can we do for the long term to make sure it stays healthy,” he said. “We have to decide what do we want the Glen to look like.” Bradley, who immediately engaged his group by showing them that daddy longlegs have just one abdomen rather than the two midsections spiders have, supported the effort to involve the public in the Bioblitz process. Because so many funds for scientific research are funneled into the most lucrative business outlets, he said, research on “esoteric” subjects such as spiders is never well supported financially. “A lot of good, solid data is collected by amateurs,” he said. “This is a good opportunity to connect and inspire activity among volunteers.” The Glen plans to make the Bioblitz an annual event, Whyte said. A presentation on the results of last weekend’s hunt is planned for July, and information will also be available on Glen Helen’s Web site, www.glenhelen.org, and in the “In the Glen” newsletter. The results will help the Glen’s staff decide what other types of data collection — perhaps in the form of another Bioblitz — would best address the Glen’s needs and give the community greater familiarity with the system it is trying to care for, Whyte said.
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