THE GREAT BLACK SWAMP
The Black Swamp was a product of the final spasms of
glaciation. With the retreat of the ice front moraines were
deposited and the ancestors of the present Great Lakes were born in
newly scoured basins. The work of erosion has not yet erased the
moraines and beach lines left by the glacier and glacial lakes.
Less than one hundred years ago the Black Swamp still marked the
most level portion of the lacustrine plain formed by the retreating
lakes. The limits of the Black Swamp were set primarily by the
beaches of Lakes Maumee and Whittlesey together with the peculiar
drainage pattern which followed the melting of the glacier. Sand
bars, spits, and even small rocky islands (formed in part by
limestone outcrops), together with the sandy beaches, remained
after the water’s subsidence to lend some variety to the otherwise
almost featureless lake plain. The sandy products of wave action,
which seldom contribute more than ten feet to the relief of the
plain, may be considered prominent only because the region as a
whole is so flat.
Plant life, however, was sensitive to these small aberrations as
well as to their sandy soils. Oak and hickory was the common
vegetation of the sandy ridges and in close association with the
sandy ridges were the wet prairies. The dominant plant cover was
the dense swamp forest type vegetation composed of a great variety
of trees. The trees grew tall and straight with small crowns
because of their closeness to each other. It was a splendid growth
known today as the deciduous swamp formation. There were no
conifers.
The swamp forest with its great variety of species contrasts
sharply with the beech-maple or oak-hickory forest associations.
The variety comes from the fact that the trees in the swamp are
sensitive to small variations in surface drainage. The degrees of
drainage are reflected by changes in species. In some cases small
rises in surface elevation result in the presence of trees common
to areas which are as a whole much drier then the swamp. Sampson
uses the term “swamp formation” to include the entire successional
series of swamp forest communities. The original vegetation of the
Black Swamp admirably demonstrated the complexity of the swamp
forest formation.
Kaatz, M.R. 1955. The Black Swamp: A Study in Historical Geography.
Annals of the Association of American Geographers 45(1):1-35.
The Goll Woods
In 1837, Peter F. Goll, an émigré from Dobs, France bought the
first 80 acres of what is now Goll Woods State Nature Preserve in
German Township, Fulton County, Ohio. Over the following years, his
farm grew to 600 acres, but he kept about 80 acres as the “Big
Woods.” The woods remained largely untouched and unforested, except
for a small amount of trees felled during World War I, and was
passed down through five generations of the Goll family until 1966
when Florence Louys gave the land to the state and in 1975 the Goll
Woods State Nature Preserve was opened.
Logging This Earthcache.
Post a picture of you and/or your GPSr at one of the 22 points
along the Cottonwood Trail (Goll Woods Nature Trail) along with
your log.
In an e-mail to me, answer these questions.
1.
A) What are the three basic forest types present at Goll
Woods?
B) At these three forest types along the Nature Trail set
your GPSr on the ground and find the elevation. How much difference
in elevation is there between the three?
2.What does DBH stand for, and what is its importance?
Notes
If you have never been to Goll Woods before, WEAR MOSQUITOE
REPELLANT! No joke - you will be in a primeval swamp, expect
the hordes of mosquitoes to be of a primeval type, too.
This should go without saying, but do not go off the trails. This
is a very sensitive area, and it’s against park rules.