May the Forest be With You

May the Forest be With You. . , Look around. These woods are vastly different from the beech-maple forest encountered by early pioneers. More than 200 years ago, like much of Ohio, this area was covered with immense trees, some with diameters up to five feet!, Early settlers cleared most woodlands for agriculture, industry and homes. Over time, the surrounding trees reclaimed the barren landscape, as farming declined here in the 1900s., Seeds of Change , Current management allows for natural processes to continue-seedlings to sprout and deadwood to decompose. Today, maple, beech, oak and tulip trees are commonly found in Northeast Ohio forests., Perhaps someday the slow-growing historic American beech and sugar maple forest will once again dominate the landscape., Nature Note , When Ohio was being settled, there was a common saying that a squirrel could travel tree to tree from the Ohio River to Lake Erie without ever touching the ground., Notice the difference in tree cover at the ravine's edge. Hemlock trees flourish here. This northern, cool-weather species is a remnant of Ohio's glacial past and is nurtured by a cool micro-climate and well-drained soils.