Eco Logic LLC

Eco Logic will be at this event on Friday! https://eri.iu.edu/news-and-events/events/indiana-sustainability-and-resilience-conference.html

It is that season again - Lead by Sam Shoaf, a.k.a., our "Burn Boss", our fire crew had the opportunity to perform a prescribed prairie burn at Howell Wetlands. Thank you Wesselman Woods for choosing Eco Logic!
These days require undivided focus from our team, so we always appreciate photos of the action. 🌱

Five Rivers Metroparks is a large park district that serves the Dayton Ohio Metropolitan Area. In 2024, the district hired Eco Logic to map invasive plants at Possum Creek Metropark and Spring Run Conservation Area as part of a restoration and tree planting program to improve the native tree canopy.

Possum Creek Metropark is a 550-acre park on the southwest side of Dayton. It includes the historic Argonne Forest, site of a former Amusement Park in 1930s and early 1940s. There are around 300 acres of forest and successional brushy acres in the park and over 100 acres of planted prairie. The invasive plant survey focused on the forested and successional brushy areas which generally had high levels of invasive species including Amur Honeysuckle, Chinese and common buckthorn, and autumn olive. The mature forest in the former Argonne Forest had somewhat lower levels of invasion, however a large population of burning bush was located on its southwest periphery. Despite the level of invasion, Possum Creek Metropark harbors several unique plant communities. In the south portion of the park, a series of ground water seepage areas flank both sides of a stream. The seepage areas harbor conservative plants indicative of this wetland type including skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), bristle-stalked sedge (Carex leptalea), white turtlehead (Chelone glabra), and marsh bellflower (Campanula aparinoides). In addition, a former upland borrow area has been colonized by prairie and barrens species including American columbo (Frasera carolinense), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), dense blazing star (Liatris spicata), and stiff gentian (Gentianella quinquefolia).

Spring Run Conservation Area is a former golf course that is being converted to native habitat. In the decade since the golf course was closed, succession has allowed high levels of invasion by shrubs such as autumn olive and Amur honeysuckle as well as Callery pears. The mapping will help prioritize stewardship efforts in both parks in preparation for tree installation.

Frog Pond Ridge Invasive Plant Mapping, Deam Wilderness

In early 2024, Eco Logic was contracted by SICIM (State of Indiana Cooperative Invasives Management) to map the invasive plant populations in the Frog Pond Ridge area of the Charles C. Deam Wilderness in Hoosier National Forest. The plant survey was funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which encouraged the Forest Service to increase capacity by working with local partners and CISMAs (Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area).

Frog Pond Ridge is a unique geologic feature consisting of a large limestone outcrop along the Mt Carmel Fault surrounded by the non-calcareous shales and siltstones more typical of the Brown County Hills. Due to its unique geology, the northern portion of Frog Pond Ridge harbors a high-quality calcareous forest of calciphile trees including shellbark hickory, blue ash, chinquapin oak, Shumard oak, and bur oak. This tree composition contrasts sharply with the surround acid oak-hickory forest where species like chestnut oak and scarlet oak are dominant on the ridges. Forbs that prefer calcareous soils such as twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla) are abundant in the northern portion of Frog Pond Ridge.

The field work for the survey was completed in late June and July of 2024 and documented 16 species of invasive plants within the survey area. Most of the woody invasive infestations were within a few hundred meters of Tower Ridge Road where the forest had been cleared and farmed prior to its acquisition by Hoosier National Forest. There is also considerable evidence of old settlements in this area. Common woody invasive species included multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora), autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) , Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), and wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius). Tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is found locally in areas of former settlement. Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) is by far the most abundant invasive herbaceous species in the survey area. In addition to the disturbed areas where the woody invasives are abundant, Japanese stiltgrass is also abundant in stream corridors and along some stretches of the trail system.

The results of this survey will be utilized to inform improved management strategies to address the invasive plant species in the Wilderness. This cooperative effort between Hoosier National Forest, SICIM, and Eco Logic is a continuation of work that commenced with the mapping of invasive species along the entire trail system in the Deam Wilderness in 2023.