Sunday, May 07, 2000

UC biologist takes survey of plant life

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By Lew Moores
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        COLERAIN TOWNSHIP — Denis Conover stops at a leafy green plant that has pushed up from the earth but not yet bloomed. It resembles wild columbo, but Mr. Conover dismisses that.

        “This is something I've never seen before,” says Mr. Conover.

        He counts its petals and does a sketch of it on a pad of paper secured to a clipboard.

Denis Conover (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        Back at his office at the University of Cincinnati he identified the plant — wild comfrey. Then he added it to a growing list of plants that are found in this pocket of forest tucked in a wild corner of Colerain Township.

        Since February, Mr. Conover, a visiting assistant professor of biology at UC's University College, has been walking the 109 acres of woods off Thompson Road, on the western edge of the township. He was contracted by the Hamilton County Park District to survey the plant life of this property, which the park district acquired at the end of 1999 from the Schunk family.

        While most associate the park district with such amenities as golf courses, boating, playgrounds and picnic areas, park officials say an equally important mission is preservation of natural habitat. Indeed, about 80 percent of the park district's 13,000 acres are maintained as natural habitat.

        When the Schunk property was offered, park district officials did a preliminary survey and concluded it was a natural gold mine. Relatively undisturbed for dec ades, the woods is home to many uncommon native plant species, as well as an abundance of wildlife.

        “This is a really special place,” said Mr. Conover last week as he walked the wooded ravines and and ridge lines of the property. “I highly recommended that they buy this property. I was glad they did.”

        He wore a backpack and rubber boots and carried a clipboard with a compass taped to its back. He was joined by David Styer, a retired UC math professor whose avocation is the bird life of the Cincinnati area, and who is surveying the bird life of the property.

        “There are things in here I'm not able to identify yet,” said Mr. Conover. “I'm waiting for them to flower.”

        The forest floor is a riot of plant species that poke from corners and hug the ridges, a splash of colors that enliven a brown canvass. There are tiny yellow flowers, white flowers that have popped up from a dry creek bed, larkspur with a crop of purple flowers, as well as water leaf with a delicate blue bloom. A variety of ferns have pushed up from the ground; a blanket of wild geraniums covers a nearby hillside; flowering dogwoods sport a headdress of milk-white flowers. There are violets here and at least two species of orchids. Black cohosh will reveal its bloom in about six weeks.

        Mr. Styer has also been coming out to the property since February and has kept a running tally of the birds that have shown up. He had counted 14 species by the end of February, 26 by March. Then his survey exploded in just the last few weeks. He's counted 80 species. He has heard wild turkey on the property and found their feathers. He's discovered the nest of a red-tailed hawk and marveled at the work of pileated woodpeckers who have drilled into and toppled a dead tree.

        Mr. Conover can stand in a clearing and imagine 200 years ago a forest of maple and beech, with oaks and hickory on the high ground. “One hundred years ago, this was probably pasture,” he said, but now it is reverting back. The floor is covered with sugar maple seedlings; in another 100 years it will again be dense forest.

        The park district will maintain the property as a conservation area.

        Jack Sutton, park district planning director, said it will not be developed for recreation; its terrain conspires against that anyway, he said.

        Mr. Conover will submit a report in mid-November, after surveying those plants that bloom in summer and fall. Park district officials say the survey will enable them to tell what is lost and what is newly discovered in later years.        

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