Natural Areas News The Cleveland Museum of Natural History

No. 2
Natural Areas News
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Why Do We Protect All That Land?
This issue of the Natural Areas News will provide
an overview of the broad range of natural communities
protected on the Museum’s 25 nature
preserves. The Museum began acquiring natural
areas in 1956 and now protects 3,291 acres
of natural land. The Museum holds deeds to
most of its land, although four of the preserves,
totaling 643 acres, are conservation easements
and one 240-acre tract within the Mentor
Marsh Preserve is leased.
The Museum
is very selective
about
which natural
lands it acquires
and as a
result, its diverse
holdings
harbor many
hooded merganser
by Larry Rosche
How Do We Save It?
Over the years, quite a bit of time has
been spent acquiring the land the Museum
has conserved. Close to half of the
total acreage preserved was donated by
its owners after they learned that their
land supported high-quality forests,
wetlands, sand barrens, alvar or streams.
The other half was purchased with
money raised through quiet campaigns,
allowing individuals, foundations and
corporations to make contributions to
the Natural Areas Restricted Fund. The
donor-restricted Natural Areas Stewardship
Endowment also provides landpurchase
funds. This endowment supports
stewardship on Museum preserves
as well.
rare species.
Many of which
are not known
A Publication of the Natural Areas Division
elsewhere in Ohio. Examples of these extremely
rare species include the deepwater
plant grass-leaved pondweed, a rare
moss called bug-on-a-stick, the rackettailed
emerald dragonfly and day-flying
geometrid moth.
Several species on Museum preserves are
globally rare, including spreading globeflower,
the clubshell mussel, Lake Erie
water snake and eastern fox snake. Museum
preserves harbor dozens of species
listed as Threatened or Endangered in
Ohio.
Museum forests provide nesting habitat
for common forest birds such as wood
thrush, scarlet tanager, redstart, ovenbird,
hooded warbler, pileated woodpecker,
red-bellied woodpecker and veery. Also
nesting within Museum forests are rare
forest birds, including hermit thrush, mag-
“If you live anywhere east of the Mississippi,
you will find this book indispensable.”
-Nick Donnelly, editor of Argia, the News Journal
of the Dragonfly Society of the Americas.
June 2002
yellow-bellied sapsucker
by Gary Meszaros
nolia warbler, parula warbler,
brown creeper, northern waterthrush,
junco, yellowbellied
sapsucker, cerulean
warbler and winter wren.
Museum marshes, swamps,
bogs and fens provide critical
habitat for wetland birds,
including wood duck, mallard,
hooded merganser,
marsh wren, rail and the En-
Museum book is selling
all over the world
Dragonflies and Damselflies of Northeast Ohio, written
by Larry Rosche and illustrated by Jacquelyn
Haley, Jennifer Brumfield and Kevin
Metcalf, is receiving wonderful reviews. The
book is selling well in the States, and copies
have been sold as far away as England, the
Netherlands and South Africa!
Proceeds from the sale of the book will benefit
the Natural Areas Division of the Museum.
If you wish to purchase a
book, contact Renee in the
Natural Areas office,
rboronka@cmnh.org.

No. 2
Stewardship on Museum Preserves
Summer is upon us. It’s time to meet a
new group of conservation interns and
begin summer stewardship projects.
Preserve stewardship is a major responsibility
of the Natural Areas Division.
It includes restoring rare natural
communities, removing alien plants,
monitoring and mapping rare species
or natural communities and restoring
important habitat for local or declining
species. Much of this work is accomplished
by conservation interns, who
are hired each summer. During
previous summers, the interns
cleared large sections of the
North Kingsville Sand Barrens
and worked on removing plants
such as myrtle from the forest
floor of several of our preserves.
The invasion of garlic mustard
has required the division to hire
outside contractors to control
its spread. This spring, large
stands of garlic mustard were
treated with herbicide at the
Managing for West Virginia Whites!
Preserving Museum populations of the
woodland butterfly West Virginia
white is a major reason garlic mustard
was removed from the Grand River
Terraces and Cottonwood Hollow this
spring. Garlic mustard is currently
invading northeastern Ohio woodlands
and choking out native wildflowers,
such as toothwort, the host
plant for West Virginia whites. The
West Virginia white
By Jay Cossey
Garlic mustard not only chokes out
native toothworts, but also kills the
caterpillars of West Virginia whites.
increasing deer herd in northeastern Ohio is
also partly responsible for the rapid, recent
invasion of garlic mustard. Deer avoid eating
garlic mustard and graze the native woodland
wildflowers instead.
Caterpillars of the butterfly feed on native
toothworts, especially two-leaved toothwort.
Garlic mustard not only chokes out
native toothworts, but also kills the caterpillars
of West Virginia whites. West Virginia
whites mistake the garlic mustard
for toothwort and lay their
eggs on it. The strong mustard
oils kill the caterpillars.
Protect Hemlock Forests, Protect Birds
Hemlock forests provide nesting habitat for several rare birds. Hermit
thrush, dark-eyed junco, winter wren, magnolia warbler and parula warbler
have been observed on Museum preserves during the breeding season.
The Museum Preserves support two different types of hemlock forest.
The hemlock swamp forest that is present at the Grand River Terraces,
North Kingsville Sand Barrens and Cathedral Woods is an Endangered
plant community in Ohio. Most hemlock swamps in Ohio are confined
to Ashtabula County. Hemlock mixed hardwood forests are found
on seven Museum Preserves. This type of forest can harbor hermit
thrush, winter wren and magnolia warbler.
garlic mustard
by Greg Petusky
Page 2
Grand River Terraces, Cottonwood
Hollow and
Singer Lake Bog Preserves.
To impede the spread of
garlic mustard yourself,
hand pull or spray the plant
with herbicide, such as
Round-Up®, before it flowers
in early spring. If flowering
has begun, the flower
head must be cut off and
burned to stop seeds from
forming.
Garlic mustard is threatening West
Virginia whites within their entire
range, from northeastern Ohio east to
the central and southern Appalachians.
Even before the garlic mustard
threat, West Virginia whites were
local throughout their range and absent
from many woodlands.
The Museum’s Grand River Terraces,
Hadlock Preserve and North Kingsville
Sand Barrens support large populations
of this beautiful butterfly.
Botanical Notecards are
now on sale in The Ark in
t h e P a r k Mu se u m
Store. Each pack of notecards
contains eight different designs based on specimens
from the Museum Herbarium. A special thank you to
Museum Graphic Designer Kelli Payto for creating such
elegant designs. Proceeds benefit the Botany Department.

No. 2
Carex garberi
Spotlight on Three Significant Natural Communities
Bogs & Fens
Kelleys Island Alvars blanda), Philadelphia panic grass (Panicum
Most of the 114 acres owned by the Museum on
Kelleys Island are home to an important Great
Lakes community called an alvar. Alvar communities
are forests, shrub communities, barrens
or wetlands that grow on thin soils over
limestone or dolomite.
Museum alvar communities support several
rare plants and reptiles. State-Threatened
Rock elm (Ulmus thomasii), smooth rose (Rosa
Sand Barrens/Oak Savannahs
Oak savannah communities, dominated by black
oak with sand barren openings, were once common
along the inland beach ridges south of Lake
Erie and on the glacial sand and gravel deposits in
Portage, Summit, Stark and Wayne counties. Oak
savannah was especially common in Ravenna,
Kent, Akron and Canton. Today, few good examples
of this community remain in northeastern
Ohio, and it is considered one of the most threatened
natural communities in the Great Lakes region.
The Museum owns two outstanding sand barren/
oak savannah tracts. The numerous bogs within the 150-acre
Singer Lake Basin in Summit County are surrounded by glacial
sand and gravel deposits and the North Kingsville Sand Barren
in Ashtabula County sits on the Lake Warren beach ridge.
Bogs and fens are rare
glacial wetlands that
harbor relic plant
communities that moved into northern
Ohio during the Ice Age. These wetlands
are also known as peatlands because the
soils underlying them, called histosols, are
composed of partially decomposed plant
material called peat. The bulk of the peat
in bogs is dead sphagnum moss. The peat
in Museum peatlands was deposited in the
bog lakes and fen springs over thousands
of years as the glaciers retreated.
The resulting peatlands
range from a few feet to 40 feet
deep. Fens are alkaline peatlands with a high
pH, often 7.7. Bogs are acidic peatlands with
a pH generally around 4.
racket-tailed emerald
by Jennifer Brumfield
The Museum has purchased
two of the region’s best fens,
Pymatuning Creek Fen in
Ashtabula County and Koelliker
Fen in Geauga County.
The Museum bought its first
bog, Fern Lake Bog in Geauga
County, in 1956. In 1998, the
Museum began acquiring
Singer Lake, the largest and
finest bog system remaining in
Ohio.
The Museum’s bogs and
fens support dozens of rare plants and
animals. Rare dragonflies inhabit all of
them, and several plant species on Mu-
Page 3
Rosa blanda
philadelphicum) and blue-eyed grass
(Sisyrinchum montanum) are found here,
as well as the State-Endangered garber
sedge (Carex garberi), eastern fox snake,
which has special interest status in Ohio,
and the Federally-Threatened Lake Erie
water snake (Nerodia sipedon insularum). Several
other plants with Potentially-Threatened status in Ohio occur
within the Museum alvar communities on the island: alpine
rush, green sedge, green milkweed and flat-stem spike-rush.
Interestingly, the Museum itself sits on the same beach
ridge. Visitors can see a sand barren in the Kent and
Thelma Smith Environmental Courtyard located in the center
of the Museum. Many species in this restored barren
occurred naturally in Wade Park more than 100 years ago.
Singer Lake and the North Kingsville Sand Barrens harbor
several rare plants. The sand barrens have the only known
Ohio population of the rare moss called bug-on-a-stick
(Buxbaumia aphylla) and the State-Threatened racemed milkwort
(Polygala polygama), formerly known from sand barrens
throughout northeastern Ohio, including historic barrens in
University Circle. This species is now confined to the
North Kingsville Sand Barrens. Wild lupine is known today
only at our sand barrens and a small barren in Summit
County. One State-Threatened grass, southern hairy panic
grass (Panicum meridionale), is known in northeastern Ohio
only from Singer Lake and the Sand Barrens.
seum peatlands are not known to
occur elsewhere in Ohio.
Ohio’s only known population of
racket-tailed emerald dragonfly
(Dorocordulia libera) occurs at Fern
Lake Bog and Singer Lake Bog.
Pymatuning Creek Fen supports
the rare brush tipped emerald dragonfly
(Somatochlora walshii), known
from only one other fen in Ohio.
The only population of day-flying
geometrid moth (Epelis truncataria)
in Ohio is widespread and common
in every bog throughout the Singer
Lake Basin.

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Natural Areas Division
1 Wade Oval Drive
Cleveland, Ohio 44106-1767
E-MAIL THE NATURAL AREAS DIVISION:
NATURALAREAS@ CMNH. ORG
Written & Designed by Jim Bissell and Renee Boronka
Neat Catch
meadow jumping mouse
by Judy Semroc
On a recent trip to Singer Lake, Natural Areas volunteer
Judy Semroc netted a meadow jumping mouse. The find is
quite significant because most mammal records for Ohio
date back to the 1950s. Over the last 50 years, very few
mammalogists have studied rodents in the state due to the
threat of disease. The resulting lack of rodent population
documentation has brought into question the number of
common species present in the state.
Globally
Rare!
A globally rare plant
was discovered at the
Grand River Terraces.
A large population of
incised toothwort
(Cardamine x incisa) was
discovered in a rich woods
at the Grand River Terraces
on April 25, 2002, during a
field trip for the Grand River
Terraces Stewardship Committee.
Prior to its discovery at the
Terraces, the state of Connecticut
has the only reported occurrence
for this rare hybrid.
A 2001 paper in the scientific
journal Brittonia recommends
species status for this rare hybrid
and for large toothwort
(Cardamine maxima), another
rare hybrid that occurs at the
Terraces.
Natural Areas News
Cardamine x incisa
Museum Herbarium