By Diana Steele
The lavender-pink spires of obedient plant glowed in the early light as I strolled the prairie at the newly opened Oberlin Preserve on a late-August morning. The 12-foot stems of the bluestem grasses swayed gently in the breeze along a mowed path. A family of House Wrens chattered at me as I wandered, and American Goldfinches chirped as they zipped overhead. I heard the gentle hooting of a Great Horned Owl in the distance. The paths meander in lazy arcs, beckoning onward as flowers dot the landscape: large swaths of yellow and black native sunflowers; stunning indigo ironweed, purple coneflower, and pink swamp milkweed.
When Western Reserve Land Conservancy (WRLC) purchased the 63-acre property five years ago, associate field director Kate Pilacky had her eye on the 30-acre woods at the south half of the land. Historically known as the Oberlin Great South Woods, the wet woods are a remnant of aboriginal northeast Ohio landscape. Too wet to farm and obviously logged at one time, the woods still retain their character of mixed hardwoods, largely white oak. The plot is a bird magnet, drawing warblers and woodpeckers, owls and sandpipers.
After eyeing the property since the early 2000’s, WRLC finally cobbled together the money to purchase and preserve the woods in 2015, but Kate wondered what the Conservancy could do with the 30 acres of farm field.
A native plant aficionado, Kate had a vision of what the land could become as it transformed from soybean field to prairie. She envisioned what Ohio’s prairies might have looked like 200 years ago, and what this field might look like a decade into the future. With funding from Oberlin College’s Green Edge Fund, and volunteer labor from the college and community, she began constructing her vision.
Over the next several years, funding from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allowed the land conservancy to expand the prairie planting to the edge of the woods. Then, in 2019, Black River Audubon Society (BRAS) obtained a Burke Plants for Birds grant from the National Audubon Society to tap into the historical significance of the property, which once was an important stop on the Underground Railroad. The Copelands, an African American family, farmed the land for 60 years; their son, John, was executed for his participation in John Brown’s antislavery raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859.
Audubon’s $2,900 grant purchased 40 native trees and shrubs, and about 25 of them, like hardy pecan, sassafras, aronia berry, elderberry and hazelnut were planted in the Bird Friendly Underground Railroad Freedom Garden in the northeast corner of the prairie during a BRAS-organized community planting day in May 2019. Many of these trees and shrubs are similar to those fleeing slaves might have used to provide nuts and berries for sustenance or for medicinal use. A newly planted cherry tree pays homage to the Copeland family orchard. Now these trees and shrubs will provide crucial food and shelter for migrating and nesting birds and for humans to enjoy.
Monarch butterflies, Eastern Bluebirds, and tree swallows have already given the prairie their stamp of approval. Monarchs flit among the blossoms, caterpillars chomp on milkweed, and the native birds have nested in half the boxes on a BRAS bluebird trail installed in fall 2019. In addition, an Oberlin girl scout troop built and installed a Chimney Swift tower.
Although the pandemic has halted, delayed, and disrupted many things; for the Oberlin Preserve, it accelerated the opening. The land conservancy board members believed that people need access to open land now more than ever, and the preserve provides space to wander and connect with nature. On August 6, 2020, WRLC held a “grand” opening with a small group of invited guests and members of the press that officially opened the preserve to the public.
