Bike Trail to a National Treasure

This room is real, Ben. And that means the treasure is real. We're in the company of some of the most brilliant minds in history because you found what they left behind for us to find, and understood the meaning of it. You did it, Ben, for all of us - your grandfather, and all of us. And I've never been so happy to be proven wrong.  -- Patrick Henry Gates, in National Treasure

Scene from the movie, National Treasure (2004)

Patrick Henry Gates, fictitious treasure-hunter, played by Jon Voight, congratulates his son, Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage), in a climactic scene of the 2004 movie, National Treasure.  The pursuit of the “national treasure” requires decoding of a series of clues, including one written on the back of the Declaration of Independence.  Maybe you saw this movie and remember the scene.

Patrick Gates’ exclamation to Ben was an invitation to movie viewers to imagine their excitement upon finding such a treasure.  But, notice that the excitement was not focused entirely on the monetary value of the treasure.  Instead, Patrick wants Ben (and the viewers) to “treasure” the experience of being there…in the company of some of the most brilliant minds in history because you found what they left behind for us to find, and understood the meaning of it.  The exciting moment, framed by Patrick’s passionate words captures for me the excitement and interest you and l ought to have when we visit a historic place, or handle an artifact and try to understand the meaning of it.

In this blog article, my aim is to interest you in joining three co-leaders and me on another kind of “national treasure” hunt.  If you decide to join us, bring your bicycle and plan to meet at the Prairie Grass Trailhead, 280 W. High St., London, Ohio, at 8:00 am, Saturday, July 29, 2017.  This annual Prairie Appreciation Bike Ride is sponsored by the Friends of Madison Co. Parks and Trails, and the Madison Soil and Water Conservation District.  You can ride at your preferred pace and distance, and we will stop along the way to observe what I will call “national botanical treasures”—prairie wildflowers and grasses that are descendants of historic plant populations that once covered large tracts of SW Ohio, the Midwest, and Great Plains.

Prairie Coneflower in a SW Ohio prairie remnant.

Bring your imaginations and be ready to ride back into history.  Get ready to imagine while you stand along the Prairie Grass Trail Bikeway in the quiet freshness of a summer morning that this was once part of an expansive Tallgrass Prairie.  Then, after the railroad tracks were laid two centuries ago, this remaining, narrow stretch of rails, ties, slag, and prairie became a protected haven from the plow, agricultural weeds, and pesticides.  But, they were not protected from regular fires ignited by either lightning or sparks from the trains that whistled by.  Fires were just what the prairie plants needed since they were well adapted to survive fire, unlike many of the woody shrubs and trees that have now invaded these “remnant prairies” now that the railroad is gone.

Royal Catchfly, a rare prairie wildflower is restricted to only
a few locations along the narrow Prairie Grass Trail

So, bring your observation skills, your imagination, and your questions. Invite friends and neighbors, and bring your children—junior age and older often ask the best questions. You will observe some of our attempts to manage these “national treasures” like Royal Catchfly and Prairie Coneflower.  Learn how you can grow and incorporate these or other nectar-rich plants like the Milkweeds into your own flower gardens.  And, learn how local organizations and industry partners are expanding their commitment to land stewardship around our country.

Hope to see you next Saturday, July 29.  If you live too far from SW Ohio to attend, you may want to “visit” several of the websites below.  Or better yet, maybe you can locate and join a conservation or land stewardship group in your area.  Chances are you will find new friends who have become interested in “national botanical treasures” located in “natural areas” as refuges for native plant and animal species.

Wayne Roberts, Exec Dir., FMCPT with co-leaders
Julie Cumming, Matt Silveira, and Karen Stombaugh

And, for all of us, may our interest in the historical and biological heritage of our neighborhoods and of our nation increase.  May we and our children be able to say, we have found what they left behind for us to find, and [we are willing to learn] the meaning of it--and to value it enough to be good stewards or “keepers” of it as we are commanded to do in the Dominion-Stewardship Mandate in the Book of Genesis:

Then the LORD God took the man
and put him into the garden of Eden
to cultivate (serve) it and keep (preserve) it.
                                              – Genesis 2: 15

RELATED SOURCES:
Botany Along the Prairie Grass Trail
Fundamentals of Conservation, Part 2 "Serving with" Creation
Fundamentals of Conservation, Part 3 "Serving with Our Neighbor"

Fundamentals of Conservation, Part 2 Serving with Creation – Article #2: Knowing the Land

Regardless of the acreage, land conservation or stewardship assumes new meaning when a person is reconciled to God from the curse of the fall through faith in Christ.  Then, as a redeemed child of God, he or she finds true identity as a steward, serving at the behest of the Creator and Owner of creation (Part I, Article #1 April).  As growth in grace establishes an intimate walk with the Creator, the steward acquires a disposition of reverence toward God not unlike that of a child full of awe and wonder at creation.  He or she is motivated to learn more about the workings of creation, and is more receptive to the notion of conservation (from con-service = “serving with”) (See Part I, Article #2 May).  The quality of stewardship is further enhanced as one learns what is pleasing to his or her Creator (2 Corinthians 5: 9) and thus fulfills the role as God’s representatives (vice-regents) on Earth (See Part I, Article #3 June).   In summary, reconciliation and an intimate relationship with God leads to right values which in turn stirs a joyful passion that motivates a conservationist to “serve creation” by serving with God.  

In Part 2, entitled “Serving With Creation,” I emphasized that intimacy with God gives us a disposition that submits to both God’s natural revelation (in creation) and to His special revelation (in Scripture) so that we can learn from creation and conserve it for God’s glory.  I call this “serving with creation.”  

Part 2 begins (See Article #1 September) with an emphasis on knowing the history of the place we wish to conserve.  Just as acquaintance with a person must include a knowledge of his or her origin, family history, and future plans, so conservation of a particular place on planet Earth must consider the geologic and climatic history of the place in question, the present dynamics at work within it, and the most probable future trajectory for this particular place.  Allow me to apply this principle in a more practical way in the following paragraphs where I will share from my personal experience.  In Part II, Article #3, I plan to describe my recent land stewardship efforts.

With Jesse and my parents, Bert and Esther Silvius
Background: Dad's grafted apple trees & grandpa's bee hives

Having grown up on a farm, I learned how to care for livestock, operate farm implements, and grow crops.  My Grandpa, Jesse Silvius, and my father, Bert Silvius, were both men who recognized the importance of caring for the land.  Working alongside my grandpa as he ordered tree seedlings of Black Locust and Catalpa, and then planted them on strip mine spoil was a practical lesson in the importance of land restoration (or reclamation as we called it).   My grandpa along with my father and my two uncles were instrumental in implementing a contour farming approach to promote soil and water conservation on our hilly SE Ohio farm.   As I grew to appreciate the importance of these techniques, I also began to understand the importance of developing a sense of place and to use that concept to pursue the right management strategy to fit each place.

When I moved from the farm, married, began classroom teaching, and started raising a family, my farming interests shifted into gardening.  Maintaining a large garden became a useful a useful means to instill a work ethic into their lives.  It was a blessing for our family to share the satisfaction of fresh vegetables for our table in the summer, a store of food for the winter months, and the opportunity to share of our bounty with others.

Since the 1990, my love of gardening has taken a turn to what some call the “wild side of gardening.”  Now that our children have their own homes, instead of mulching and cultivating garden plots, I’ve found joy and satisfaction in exploring and managing “wild places”—also called “natural areas.”  During my tenure as professor of biology at Cedarville University, I was privileged to introduce my botany and ecology students to remnant prairie communities that survived along the railway leading from Columbus through Cedarville to Cincinnati.  I had first become aware of these prairie remnants in the late 1960's when Dr. Charles C. King, my Malone College biology professor at the time, spoke of them.  [More about "Charlie King" in a future article.]

Remnant prairie communities are just that—“remnants” of an extensive mosaic of prairie grassland communities surrounded by a matrix of forest communities throughout what is now central and SW Ohio (See Part II, Article #1 September).  As Ohio forests were cleared for agriculture and urban development in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, wet and dry prairie communities were converted into cropland.  By the 20^th century, the last refuges of prairie in Ohio were cemeteries and railways which had escaped the plow and bulldozer.

As we have noted, the settlement of the landscape of W-SW Ohio within the past two centuries has greatly altered it in all but isolated areas, mostly along railways, now bikeways.  Agricultural cropping would have eliminated its uniqueness as had been accomplished in the thousands of acres of surrounding farmland.  While the railroad right-of-way was still busy carrying trains, these prairie wildflowers were seldom even seen by humans unless they were visible from a railroad crossing or visible to those who hiked or farmed along the tracks.

"Sabbath Rest" between active railway era & Prairie Grass Trail

With the departure of the railroad era in the 1980’s, several decades of “Sabbath rest” began along the abandoned rails and the crushed limestone that supported the road bed.  During the railroad era, sparks and hot ash would frequently ignite dry, dead wildflower stems and oil-containing grasses causing a flaming furry that would often kill shrubs and trees by boiling their sap and killing cells.  Fire damage and the occasional clearing of woody plants by railroaders served to maintain an open treeless community where prairie wildflowers and grasses could thrive.  The shallow soil and stony railroad grade added to the environmental rigor that tended to exclude all but the hardiest plant species—those which had invaded what is now Ohio from the Great Plains during a hypothetical dry period after the Ice Age.

That such a narrow slice of landscape could have provided such a suitable refuge for prairie plant species that are used to populating the expanse of the Great Plains is a humbling fact to land stewards who now wonder how to manage these prairie remnants.  That’s right.  We now know that, in the absence of an active railway, conditions that had suppressed woody plants but had enhanced the prairie wildflowers were no longer operating.  Unless someone takes the responsibility to sustain these remnant communities they will gradually lose their unique species.  This notion brings us to our second lesson from the slender slice of the Ohio landscape.

If it is true that the beauty and botanical uniqueness of the Prairie Grass Path came about without the deliberate planning of land stewards, then sustaining its current existence will require that we humbly learn the “secrets” of a once active railroad right-of-way. “Secrets” of a railroad that was just “being a railroad” while it was being managed by railroaders “just being railroaders” and not promoters of prairie plants. Herein lies what I believe is a core principle for the management of remnant communities; namely, one must understand the environmental and biotic factors that shape a biotic community, and then go to the drawing board to decide how best to promote these conditions.  In Article #3 of Part II, “Serving with Creation,” I will more explain more specifically some of the progress we are making in remnant prairie management along the Prairie Grass Trail.