Appendix  H. Environmental And Natural Resources

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1. Historic Vegetation 

2. Figure H1: Natural Heritage Database: Vegetation (2004)  

3. Figure H2 : Ohio Protection Status Criteria for Vegetation 

4. Figure H3: Mammals Recorded within the Darby Creek Corridor at Battelle-Darby Metropark (1992)  

5. Figure H4: Reptiles and Amphibians Recorded within the Darby Creek Corridor (1992)  

6. Figure H5: Fish Species Collected by Ohio EPA from 1979 to 2000  

7. Figure H6: Birds Documented at Battelle-Darby Metropark  (1987-2003)  

Historic Vegetation

The following sections will discuss historic vegetation as well as current rare or endangered plants in the watershed. 

During the earliest land surveys, over 90 percent of the streams in the Darby Creek Watershed were covered by mixed oak and oak-sugar maple forests (ODNR, 1992; 63). 

Mixed Oak Forests

The most common forest type in this category were white oak-black oak-hickory and white oak.    The first surveyors used the term “black oak” which referred to red oak and perhaps scarlet oak.  The term “hickory” included the shagbark, bitternut, pignut, and mokernut hickories.  In addition a white oak-black oak-chestnut type occurred in the low-lime glaciated plateau, mainly on hilltops, and down south-facing slopes.  During the early 1900s the chestnut disappeared from Ohio woodlots (ODNR, 1992; 63).

Oak-Sugar Maple Forests

These forests largely consisted of white oak, red oak, black walnut, and black maple.  Also included were sugar maple, white ash, red elm, basswood, bitternut and shagbark hickories.  These forests usually lacked beech, chestnut, red maple, and tuliptree (ODNR, 1992; 63-64)

Beech Forests

The forests in this category consisted of beech, sugar maple, red oak, white ash and white oak, with scattered individuals of basswood, shagbark hickory, black cherry, and a few cucumbertree.  On poorly drained flatlands the most familiar types were beech-sugar maple and “wet beech” (ODNR, 1992; 64).

Elm-Ash Swamp Forests

Dominant trees in these forest were white elm, black and/or white ash, silver and/or red maple.  The extremely wet areas contained cottonwood and/or sycamore.  Better drained areas contained bur oak-big shellbark hickory and red oak-basswood (ODNR, 1992; 64)

Prairies

The flat plains of the Darby Watershed greeted pioneers with large expanses of grasses dominated by big bluestem, little bluestem, switch grass or Indian grass.  The large expanse of grasses contained scattered groves of oaks and hickories (ODNR, 1992; 64). 

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Last updated: August 18, 2008.