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Prairie & Wetland Plants at Shaker Trace

July 26 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Theme: Prairie & Wetland Plants in Bloom

Location: Miami Whitewater Forest, Shaker Trace

Date: *Friday, July 26, 2024

Meet: At *7:00 P.M. in the Baughman Road Parking Lot. See directions below.

Trip Leader: Tom Borgman, (513) 473-7696, pborgman@live.com

 

*Note that this is a Friday evening walk.

 

The focus of this trip will be on the prairie & wetland plant communities at the Shaker Trace. Note the evening start time which should help us beat the heat a bit. Many of the prairie wildflowers will be in bloom, blanketing the grassland in spectacular color. In 1992, Great Parks of Hamilton County began a native prairie and wetland restoration project of several hundred acres at Miami Whitewater Forest.  The project has been a great success and today over 500 acres of a native grassland and wetland community is preserved. Often referred to as the Miami Whitewater wetlands, the entire complex is officially named Shaker Trace and represents the largest wetland/grassland complex in Hamilton County. Late summer is a great time to see these prairie plants in bloom in a stunning array of colors.

Identifying all of these plants can be a challenge. But our trip leader, Tom Borgman, is more than qualified in that regard. Tom is retired from the Hamilton County Park District where he worked for many years as a naturalist. Many of those years were spent working on the Shaker Trace project. Tom is a skilled botanist and overall naturalist and is a past board member of our Audubon Society Chapter. Tom’s wife, Penny Borgman, also retired from years of service with the HCPD is our ASO current President.

Tom plans to take a leisurely evening walk exploring the Shaker Trace complex with lots of stops to look at and identify plants, especially the prairie blooms. This is also a great time of year for butterflies. Breeding birds will still be around as well as a few early migrants. Tom will point out all of these and any other wildlife we encounter.

This trip will end around dusk. This walk will cover about 2 miles, but the walking will be slow and level. Some places are likely to be damp as we will at times walk along a marsh. We can expect late July to be hot, so to make your trip more comfortable we suggest bringing water, sun screen, insect repellant and wearing a hat. Bring your binoculars if you have any.

Bring your questions about natural areas management and come prepared to enjoy an evening with friends among the grasses and flowering plants of these extensive prairie and wetland habitats. Restrooms are available in other areas of the park but there are none at Shaker Trace. A Hamilton County Park Motor Vehicle Permit is required ($5 daily, $10 annual resident and $8 daily and $16 annual non-resident). Feel free to contact Tom if you have any questions.

Directions: Take I-74 west to the Dry Fork Road exit # 3. Turn right onto Dry Fork Road (north) and go 2.2 miles to New Haven Road. Bear right (east) onto New Haven Road and go .8 mile to Oxford Road. Turn left onto Oxford Road and then immediately left again onto Baughman Road. Go .7 mile and look for the gravel parking lot on the right side (north) of the road just after passing the Bike/Hike Trail crosswalk.

For a Park map and other information visit the Miami Whitewater Forest website at:

https://www.greatparks.org/parks/miami-whitewater-forest

 

(Contributed by Jay Stenger)

Details

Date:
July 26
Time:
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm