Columbus Metroparks Natural Play Areas

The Last Child in the Woods?

I'm lucky- as a natural resources professional for the good part of the past ten years- I've never really been confined to trails.  Yeah, sure, when I visit our local Metroparks with my family, I've got to stay on the trails, or do I?

Responding the the rising sentiment laid out in Richard Louv's "The Last Child in the Woods", in which he argues today's children suffer from a nature deficit disorder, the Columbus Metroparks have created what they call natural play areas.  At least ten acres in size, these areas are designated places where children and their families can go off trail, climb trees, look for bugs, to play in streams, and pick up sticks (please note that Weston is firmly holding onto a stick in each of the photos I have posted here).

We felt Weston, now 17 months, might finally be ready to explore an area like this.  Megan and I drove him to the Highbanks Metropark natural play area this past Saturday, and with a little guidance, let him explore the area.

"Play in a Stream, Climb Trees and Rocks, Look for Bugs and Worms"

Weston loved it- and we came slightly unprepared.  But those white New Balances won't fit in a month, so we let him get them all wet.  At one point he went marching into the Olentangy.

Towards the end of our visit, and after I had pointed out poison ivy and several patches of itch inducing wood nettle, Megan told me she wouldn't feel comfortable bringing Weston here by herself- she would worry about him getting poison ivy or nettle stings. It really brought home the point- today's parents are just afraid to let their kids play in the woods, fearing horrible insect bites, ticks, West Nile Virus, rashes, broken bones, abductions, and just about anything bad we can possibly think of.  

I grew up on the outskirts of a suburb of Akron, but we were lucky to have a piece of city owned land behind our house that was slated to be a developed park, but to this day remains a natural area. It was my natural playground, and it was in my backyard.  The house that Weston now claims as his own is surrounded by grassy yards.  Since I want to give Weston the opportunity to love the natural world, I'm excited about these natural play areas- hopefully other parents will find these places as well-  I hope Weston  won't be the last child in the woods.

Tom

Metroparks Challenge Hike #5 Glacier Ridge

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Metroparks Challenge #4 Blendon Woods in the Rain

Just pictures this evening, I hope you enjoy what Megan, Weston, and I saw on our quick but fruitful walk to Thoreau Lake at Blendon Woods Metropark on the Columbus' northeast side. September 26th, 2009.

Tom

Columbus Welcomes Autumn

Blendon Woods Metropark, Saturday September 26th, 2009

Metro Parks Challenge #3 Battelle Darby

A curious goldfinch greets us along the trail

If you live in Ohio, or quite possibly if you really like aquatic ecosystems and live in another state, you may have heard of the "The Darby". This gem of an ecosystem lies just outside Columbus and drains the Darby Plains, once home to a great expanse of natural tall grass prairie, and now home to some of Ohio's richest agricultural land.

Even so, the Big and Little Darby Creeks are still amazingly rich in biodiversity- if I were at work I could tell you exactly how many rare species live in these streams, but safe to say it is dozens. The streams were designated by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources as State Scenic Rivers back in 1984 and recognized as national scenic rivers in 1994. I have to say that these two creeks are the biological gems of central Ohio, and I just simply need to visit these areas more often.

Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park is where to go to see the Big Darby, and even some of Little Darby, as the two streams reach their confluence in this Metro Park.
The streams are quite unassuming. But underneath their surfaces is a rich diversity of beautifully colored fish and freshwater mussels with bizarre life histories.

So what better place to introduce Weston to a world class ecosystem AND complete our third Metro Parks Hike for the year? Here he is in the backback- If you remember back to our Sharon Woods hike, we forgot the sun shade- but not this time.
However- We DID forget his bib! How fun it was to watch Mom get food all over the place. Murphy's law was certainly in place this day- forget the bib and he'll be sure to be extra messy with his baby barley cereal.

On our way along the trail, we encountered things like cutleaf coneflower, Rudbeckia laciniata.
And in higher drier meadows we saw one of the cudweed species in the genus Pseudognaphalium.

And we also got to introduce Weston to map turtles. This female was basking on a rock in a large pool created just downstream from the confluence of the Darby Creeks. She was absolutely huge, probably 10 inches long- dwarfing her male counterparts at the other end of the rock.

As we returned north through the most mature woods along the trail, I happened to spot the plant pictured above. Weird, I thought to myself, I've never seen this. I thought it might be an orchid. A quick e-mail to my colleague Rick Gardner after we returned home and he confirmed that my suspicion was indeed correct. He identified this as the autumn coralroot, Corallorhiza odontorhiza. Some plant species produce flowers that never open and are self fertilized- botanists call these cleistogamous flowers. Autumn coralroot can produce both types of flowers, so it is possible that these flowers will open eventually, or it is possible that they will remain closed and self fertilize.

Megan, Weston, and I had great fun at Battelle Darby Creek Metropark. We parked at the Cedar Ridge area and followed the Indian Ridge trail south to the Indian Ridge Picnic area and back. Here's an aerial view of the day's adventure.


View Metroparks Challenge in a larger map


Tom

The Metro Parks Challenge

Megan and I took Weston to Clear Creek Metropark this Saturday- down at the gateway of the hocking hills. With the construction of the Lancaster bypass, we can be in Ohio's hill country in about 50 minutes. When we're there, it seems as if we're much further from home than we really are. One of things about living in Columbus is that we're a nicely sized metro area, but we're also a pretty compact metro area, in spite of all the suburban sprawl taking place. This means, at least for now, that we can take a fairly short drive and be out in very rural areas. Growing up in the megalopolis that is northeast Ohio- finding rural serenity was just about impossible. Although I did find out that this was in fact possible when I left home for Hiram College- a short drive but also a world away from home.


Back to Saturday. We're gradually taking Weston, 6 months old now, on increasingly longer car rides, and using our backpack carrier we were graciously given by Megan's Mom. Although Clear Creek is famous for its hilly terrain, I remembered from a former visit, in my single days, there is fairly flat trail that followed the creek. Since Megan was prepping for a 5K the following day, that would be the perfect trail to walk with Weston.


Here we're about to load the little guy up and hit the trail.


In the carrier, but not yet on my back.


On my back. When I first put this thing on, I'm shocked at just how heavy it is. Weston is over 19 pounds, and the carrier itself is at least 5 pounds- it is quite a load, until you get going.


Clear Creek Metropark is also Ohio's largest dedicated State Nature Preserve- a fact not widely advertised once you are in the park. The creek itself runs clear and cool- cool enough to support a stocked population of brown trout, so the park is frequented by anglers and hikers alike.


Weston looking mighty baby like- and being fed Gerber squash. I tried it- sweet, like butternut squash. Not bad at all.


Here's Weston's new sinister grin. We're not sure how he came up with this, but it started this past Friday. Whenever he gets excited, he seems to flash this funny smile. It is pretty cute, since it reveals his newly formed teeth!


Dad, I really must eat this stick. Don't worry, mom pulled it away a split second after she took this photo.


But I have to get some nature in- The floodplain of Clear Creek reminds me of the Olentangy, except for one big difference- the lack of invasive species. No honeysuckle, no garlic mustard. Overall, a very nice example of a floodplain community, and all the late summer species were blazing.


Here's one to watch for, its Gaura biennis. These small pinkish and white flowers don't look like much until you really look at them closely, and wow, they're really quite neat. Check out that dangling stigma. Very cool.


Megan and I really enjoyed our short hike with Weston, in all, about two miles in the bottomland of Ohio's hill country. We enjoyed it so much, that we had a little idea. An idea that we're calling the Metro Parks Challenge.

What is this challenge? This fall, before the snow flies, we're going to take Weston to each Metro Park in the central Ohio Metro Parks system- all 15 of them- before the snow flies. Can we do it? It should be fun trying, for sure. There still are a handful of parks that I've never been to, and Weston will be able to tell his baby friends that he's been to all of them before reaching the tender age of one. We'll both be blogging about this- so also look for Megan's perspective on her blog- My New Life as a Mom.

1 down, 14 to go.

Batelle Darby Creek
Blacklick Woods
Blendon Woods
Chestnut Ridge
Clear Creek
Glacier Ridge
Heritage Trail
Highbanks
Inniswood
Pickerington Ponds
Prairie Oaks
Scioto Audubon
Sharon Woods
Slate Run
Three Creeks

Columbus Welcomes the Grange Insurance Audubon Center

Let's flash back a few years. I'm a brand new graduate student at Miami University- in the Institute of Environmental Sciences- with big dreams of making a difference in the environmental field. Our teachers packed a bunch of us newbie students into fifteen passenger vans and we set out on a three day adventure around southwest and central Ohio- the goal? To see as many environmental type things we could- ranging from wildlife sanctuaries-to chemical plants- to landfills.

But one of the coolest places we visited was the Aullwood Audubon Center & Farm in Dayton- what an awesome place. Now THAT is a nature center, my nature loving friends. If you haven't been there, go. But what does this have to do with Columbus and the here and now?

I remember our guide, way back in 2001, telling us how there was a downtown nature center be planned for the City of Columbus. What a cool idea, I thought to myself- as a young and aspiring environmental professional, I thought, that would be a great place to work.

Well, it has been about eight years since I first heard about the center, and well, I just couldn't wait around that long to find a job. But, last weekend, I did have an opportunity to participate in the opening weekend of Columbus' newest nature destination- The Grange Insurance Audubon Center.


I received an e-mail out of the blue from Victoria, an educator at the Center, asking me if I wanted to display some of my photographs that appeared here at The Ohio Nature Blog. After a few e-mails, this eventually morphed into me agreeing to present "a photo workshop". After a bit of thinking, I said sure, I could do that, and I eventually came up with the title "eight tips for better nature photography" which I'll share here in time.

I hope the patrons who had gathered at the center enjoyed my talk- we had a nice conservation about photography, and I really enjoy being able to share my view of the world with others, this time, in a face-to-face situation.

But let's get back to the center. It is situated on the Whittier Peninsula, in a reclaimed industrial area just south of Columbus (i added a Google map that shows you what the area recently to look like, scroll down to the end of the post).

The old industrial land that surrounds the center is now Scioto Audubon Metropark. This land is a work in progress, as you'll see below.


The building is really quite cool. It is quite an example of eco-engineering. Take for example storm water management. See those strange looking rusty-red downspots? They bring water off the roof, underneath the large sidewalk, and then into the rain garden/swale on the left. This system eventually works itself down into a little pond, which is already frequented by twelve spotted skimmers.




The center itself looks towards the city and towards the mighty Scioto (pronounced Sy-O-tah), on the banks of which our capital city was founded. The river was muddier than my grandfather's cream filled coffee on this day from recent rains, although the turtles were out in full force- both map turtles, painted turtles and the non-native red-eared sliders.


My only surprise with the Audubon center was its lack of exhibits. Aullwood, in my recollection, was full of live animals and just all sorts of really cool nature "flair". Perhaps the Grange Center is just ramping up- but I'd like to see more nature things in the building itself. I'm sure this will happen with time.


We're quite lucky to have a world class nature center building here in the heart of Ohio. If you are able, visit often, and watch it, and the native plants sown around the center, grow. I should add a caveat- If the geese don't eat them all first.

Tom


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