Grand River Conservation with the Cleveland
Natural History Museum
by
Ian Reider & Jered Korfhage
Compared to the previous week’s trip, the weather was fantastic. 70 degrees and sunny was a much appreciated break from the cold. The initial plan was to use canoes to get to the field sites. Unfortunately, the rain events earlier in the week left the Grand River slightly too rough to safely paddle to the sites. Thus, we traveled by van and foot.
The first site we visited was located on the bank of the Grand River within the floodplain. The floodplain is the area, which the river will cover when it breaches its banks after heavy rain. Thus, this area is typically not under as much water unless flooding occurs. Flooding happened here recently because the river level was still very high, submerging parts of the flood plain areas close to the riverbanks. We also observed brims and natural levees of recent debris deposits.
The first site we visited was located on the bank of the Grand River within the floodplain. The floodplain is the area, which the river will cover when it breaches its banks after heavy rain. Thus, this area is typically not under as much water unless flooding occurs. Flooding happened here recently because the river level was still very high, submerging parts of the flood plain areas close to the riverbanks. We also observed brims and natural levees of recent debris deposits.
We hiked along the river floodplain, searching for garlic mustard. Though the invasive garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) was still sparse, we did see the first blooms of the native Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), which true to its name, smelled like skunk. We also saw different sedges, trout lilies (Erythronium americanum), and eventually small sprouts of garlic mustard. To manage the populations of this invasive plant, the best option is to manually remove individuals while they are still young early in the season. All plant material, including the deep tap roots need to be removed, bagged, and transported off site. These plants can establish an extensive seed bank, so removal efforts must continue for up to 7-10 years to exhaust the seed bank. Chemical herbicides can also be applied to mature populations, which is what will be done at a later date to the patches that were too established for manual removal to be effective. The sites we pulled Garlic Mustard at was on the floodplain along the Grand River.
Walking down to the riverbank, we could see evidence of slumping on the hillside. Keith Moran, Land Steward for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, mentioned how the water gets down to the clay layer, then sits, making for very unstable conditions. Once at the riverbank, effects of fluvial erosion were evident. The river cut the banks as it turned, and deposited sediment on the inner bank.
Though this site was protected museum property, there were still traces of human impact. The whole length of the river was scarred by an ATV trail creating ruts and killing plants. This disturbance creates an opening for Garlic Mustard to take over and out-compete native plant species that were killed by the ATV disturbance. Another threat that poses problems to sites like this flood plain is runoff of fertilizers from nearby agricultural fields. This run-off introduces extra nutrients and nitrogen into the river system which in turn can lead to eutrophication.
The second site we visited was in a hemlock and white pine forest stand. This type of forest is extremely rare to see anymore because most have been cleared for farming. Additionally, white pines cones need natural fires for germination and human fire suppression prevents recruitment and the trees become very rare to see in this area.
Though this site was protected museum property, there were still traces of human impact. The whole length of the river was scarred by an ATV trail creating ruts and killing plants. This disturbance creates an opening for Garlic Mustard to take over and out-compete native plant species that were killed by the ATV disturbance. Another threat that poses problems to sites like this flood plain is runoff of fertilizers from nearby agricultural fields. This run-off introduces extra nutrients and nitrogen into the river system which in turn can lead to eutrophication.
The second site we visited was in a hemlock and white pine forest stand. This type of forest is extremely rare to see anymore because most have been cleared for farming. Additionally, white pines cones need natural fires for germination and human fire suppression prevents recruitment and the trees become very rare to see in this area.
- Observed Biota:
- Dusky salamanders, (Desmognathus fuscus)
- Two-line salamanders, (Eurycea bislineata)
- Spotted salamanders, (Ambystoma maculatum) with egg masses
- Red-backed salamanders, (Plethodon cinereus)
- Spring Peeper, (Pseudacris crucifer)
- White oak, (Quercus alba)
- Hemlock, (Tsuga Canadensis)
- Beech, (Fagus sylvatica)
- White pine, (Pinus strobus)
- Stone flies, (Order Plecoptera)
Significance of the field trip: We could see how protecting and managing land can preserve or bring land back to near its natural state.
On this trip we learned about which lands are worth managing and protecting. We learned just how detrimental humans can be to land and natural resources without even knowing it (off-roading, fertilizers, spreading invasive species). We saw the immense effort it takes to restore sites that have been mistreated. We also saw just how important conservation is so that the long and difficult process of restoration can be avoided if the conservation is done well and the environment is affected minimally in the first place. We were able to see a very high quality body of water (a stretch of the Grand River with various small head water streams), almost three times the quality of our local Cleveland streams and rivers, as determined by aquatic invertebrate surveys as well as simple water chemistry parameters such as electrical conductivity, turbidity, and temperature. The high quality of this water could be seen immediately by finding a variety of cold-water species in the stream such as stonefly larvae, caddisfly larvae, and stream salamander that are only able to inhabit streams of higher quality. A big take away from this trip is just how difficult conservation and restoration is and how there is no promise that the efforts will even be effective. That is why conservation is so important so that time and resources do not have to be put in after the damages are already done to the environment.
On this trip we learned about which lands are worth managing and protecting. We learned just how detrimental humans can be to land and natural resources without even knowing it (off-roading, fertilizers, spreading invasive species). We saw the immense effort it takes to restore sites that have been mistreated. We also saw just how important conservation is so that the long and difficult process of restoration can be avoided if the conservation is done well and the environment is affected minimally in the first place. We were able to see a very high quality body of water (a stretch of the Grand River with various small head water streams), almost three times the quality of our local Cleveland streams and rivers, as determined by aquatic invertebrate surveys as well as simple water chemistry parameters such as electrical conductivity, turbidity, and temperature. The high quality of this water could be seen immediately by finding a variety of cold-water species in the stream such as stonefly larvae, caddisfly larvae, and stream salamander that are only able to inhabit streams of higher quality. A big take away from this trip is just how difficult conservation and restoration is and how there is no promise that the efforts will even be effective. That is why conservation is so important so that time and resources do not have to be put in after the damages are already done to the environment.