My Backyard in March

Posted on March 30, 2020 by Anna Seuberling

Little Miami River Valley

It is with great sadness that I can no longer blog about the Trinity woods this academic year. However, looking at the bright side, I get to show all of you my backyard in Ohio during the spring. Spring is my favorite season in Ohio and love that I can experience it one more time.

In the next two entries, I hope to show you all the plant and animal life, soil/ geology and local weather in my area. To start, here is a map of my new location.

As you can see, the creek bed is located close to farms and residential lawns that use fertilizers. Fortunately, there is enough of a buffer zone to keep this creek clean.

The area I live in is called the Little Miami River Valley. My house is about 6 miles west of the Little Miami River. There is a small creek that flows into the Little Miami River that provides habitat and resources for all types of plants, mammals, birds, amphibians, etc. Pictured below are some of the animals and plants I have encountered in the past two weeks.

Wildlife

The circle of life is an endless story - The Apopka Voice
(Town, 2020) Pictured above is a Crayfish. Crayfish become active (and more easily seen) in the spring as their breeding season begins in late March. Crayfish will lay their eggs 4-6 weeks later. According to Penn State research, Crayfish “are significant links in the complex aquatic and terrestrial food webs in our ecosystem.” (Fitzgerald, 2006). Crayfish are very intolerant of pollution, so seeing the Crayfish population in my creek indicates good water quality.
(Schroeder, 2012) These flowers are Claytonia virginica, or more commonly knowns as Spring Beauty. These wildflowers bloom in early March and are dormant by late June. These flowers grow just above the leaf litter. They are also edible.
Fly Honeysuckle: My Earliest-Blooming Native Shrub
(Purdey, 2019) The infamous honeysuckle tree has finally gained its tiny bright green leaves. This invasive species is the first in wooded areas to bud and grow their leaves, leaving the understory shaded and overgrown. This prevents other native, shade-intolerant species from growing.

Weather and Watershed

As the snow melts and the spring rains hit our backyards, runoff from neighboring farms and lawns can impact watersheds. As we learned in NR 01, pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers can impact the phosphorus and nitrogen levels in the nearby waterways. As previously mentioned, the creek behind my house is in good condition due to the wooded buffer zone that stand in between the creek and farms/ lawns. However, this is not true for all streams that flow into the Little Miami River.

Analysis of phosphorus and nitrogen concentrations in the Great ...
(MCWCC, 2015) The graph above shows the relationship between participation and Nitrogen and Phosphorus concentration in various locations in the Greater Miami area. Trends show that in months of greater participation, concentrations are higher. The precipitation helps move the chemicals further down the watershed and into larger bodies of water. March has the most inches of precipitation of the year.

Field Notes

“The older I grow the more do I love spring and spring flowers. Is it so with you?”

~Emily Dickinson

To conclude, March is a busy month for natural areas in Ohio. Most trees are blooming by the end of the month and animals are finally moving around and soaking up the sun. As hectic as our current situation is, it is comforting to know that nature still runs its cycle.

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, A. (2006). The Virtual Nature Trail at Penn State. Retrieved March 30, 2020, from https://www.psu.edu/dept/nkbiology/naturetrail/speciespages/crayfish.htm

Mill Creek Watershed Council of Communities, Citizens’ Water Quality Monitoring, & Butler County Stream Team. (2015). Stream Bank: Regional Water Quality Data Base. Retrieved March 30, 2020, from http://streambank.info/

ODNR Division of Natural Areas. (n.d.). Spring Beauty. Retrieved March 30, 2020, from http://naturepreserves.ohiodnr.gov/natural-features-of-ohio/ohio-wildflowers/species-profiles/spring-beauty

Purdey, K. (April 26, 2019). Fly Honeysuckle. photograph, Upstate New York.

Schroeder, J. (2012). Spring Beauty. photograph, Missouri.

Towne, C. (n.d.). Crayfish-in-Natural-Habitat. photograph, Apopka, Florida.

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