The Ohio: Sense of Place Fall 2015 Field Trip Series continues with a guided look at the forest communities of Athens County at Stroud’s Run State Park on Sunday, Oct. 11, from 1 to 5 p.m.
The guided walk includes an investigation of the impact of human land use on current forest communities. The field trip is led by Dr. Glenn Matlack of the Ohio University Environmental & Plant Biology Department.
This Place Isn’t What It Used To Be: Traces of Past Land Use in the Stroud’s Run State Park
Description: We are accustomed to think of history shaping the culture of a place, but history also shapes the landscape and biological community in a very concrete way. Southeastern Ohio has experienced many very different land uses over the last three hundred years; the current forest cover is only a recent guise paralleling the decline of agriculture and the rise of service industries (like Ohio University) in the 20th century. On the field trip we will walk through the beautiful forests of Stroud’s Run State Park and examine the traces of former land uses. We will ask how past uses have shaped the modern forest community and, by inference, what impact our use of the land will have in the future. We will see that there is a very different place waiting to express itself in southeast Ohio, and it looks like Stroud’s Run!
The field trip departs from the parking lot behind Porter Hall at 1 p.m. on an Ohio University charter bus and returns to the same location at 5 p.m. The field trip includes walking on and off the trails of Stroud’s Run, so participants should wear appropriate clothing including long pants and sturdy footwear and bring water.
RSVP: Space is limited to 12 participants, so reservations are required. Please email Dr. Daniel Hembree, Associate Professor of Geological Sciences, at hembree@ohio.edu with your reservation or for more information.
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