Poland Forest’s glorious wildflowers must be understood and protected

Poland Forest’s glorious wildflowers must be understood and protected

As we know, the emerald ash borer is infecting ash trees throughout our region. While Poland Village Council and the Poland Forest Board discuss the purported dangers of falling dead ash trees in the Poland Municipal Forest, the wild flowers of the forest floor need to be better understood and protected.

Nationally recognized field biologist Jim Bissell, who visited the forest in the spring of 2014, calls the display of wildflowers in our woods “the best wildflower woods in Northeastern Ohio, one of the five best in the state of Ohio.”

And, why is that display so wonderful? The Poland Forest has a sweeping irrigation system underground that has supplied the bulbs and corms for centuries, uninterrupted. The few paths, fewer road, little off-trail biking or bushwhacking have protected the fragile flowers’ lifeline to water and soil, causing a glorious display celebrated across the region by wildflower enthusiasts.

Any of us who heard William Cullina at Fellows Garden this spring heard how many, many years are needed to have a wildflower display grow to that seen in the Poland Woods. Wildflowers, are called “Spring ephemera” because they do all their growing and reproduction in a few, short months.

Decades are needed for most spring wildflowers to grow to bloom size. That display of trillium that looks like a bank of Madonna lilies took several centuries to grow to such a size. Dragging thousand-pound trees across it, even using horses instead of a backhoe, will cause decades of damage in compacted soil and interrupted water flow.

So, while Polandites consider the dangers of a falling ash tree branches or stems, they need to also consider that “cleaning” or “harvesting” or “protecting citizens” will cause damage to the best wildflower display in Northeastern Ohio that could never be reclaimed in our lifetime.

Rebecca Rogers, Poland