Celery Bog water fowl made life in dead trees
focb April 23rd, 2008
[NOTE: Joan Mohr-Samuel’s Guest Column in the Lafayette, IN Journal & Courier for Thursday 06 March 2008 ]
Celery Bog water fowl made life in dead trees
I am writing in response to Friday’s Journal & Courier article “Dying trees removed near bog.”
It may surprise readers to learn that the dead and dying trees that were cut down along the edge and into the marsh were not worthless. In fact, they provided very valuable habitat for birds and made the area a popular birding spot for people from all over Indiana.
Now all of this habitat on the east side of the marsh bordering the Purdue Kampen Golf Course has been destroyed.
So what difference does it make that Purdue golf course officials had all the trees (dead, dying and alive) clear-cut from the entire eastern edge of the Celery Bog marsh?
Gone is the vegetative screen and sound buffer between the golf course and the marsh that allowed visitors to Celery Bog Nature Area to enjoy views of nature, not golfers and a golf course, and to hear sounds of nature, not balls being struck, golfers talking, lawn mowers running, etc.
Gone are the perching sites and cover for the many wading birds that come to the marsh.
Gone are the standing dead trees in the water for the cavity nesters.
Gone will be many of the birds that used this habitat.
Local birder Russell Allison, who has visited the Celery Bog area several times a week for a number of years, has photographed the many species that use the dead and dying trees in the area that now has been clear-cut. He reports observing:
An osprey in the tops of these trees, using them for launching pads to go after fish, then returning to the same trees to eat its catch;
Local wildlife ecologist Barny Dunning says, “Even if the trees were dead, they were providing wildlife habitat, so it can’t be said that they were worthless because they were not living. Many waterfowl species would hang out among the tree trunks for cover during the spring and fall. And, of course, many species, including woodpeckers, prothonotary warblers, wood ducks and hooded mergansers breed in cavities of dead trees.”
Friend of the Bog and longtime birding enthusiast Temple Pearson says the tree-cutting “destroyed a magical place that served as protection, perches and nesting spots for our wildlife that inhabit the bog.”
Destroying this birding habitat was a big mistake, but it’s done. Let’s hope something has been learned to prevent a similar happening in the future.
Purdue is a university with a Forestry and Natural Resources Department. It’s hard to understand why its golf course officials had the authority to cut down all the trees in a sensitive birding area along the marsh and part of a nature area without involving people connected with the Celery Bog Nature Area and others who are knowledgeable about this wetland habitat and its wildlife ecology.
Purdue now has an opportunity to be a better neighbor to the Celery Bog Nature Area and to the large community of birders and walkers who come out to enjoy this natural area.
Purdue can have the golf officials and the Celery Bog people and the Forestry and Natural Resources people sit down together to plan replacement plantings that provide good habitat for the birds as well as a vegetative screen between the golf course and the marsh.
This could be good for all concerned, though it will be many years before the habitat provides what was lost by the recent clear-cutting of trees.
Replanting this area with native grasses, as proposed by golf officials, would not provide the perching, roosting and nesting sites that have been lost.
Samuels is active in community conservation efforts and outreach such as Wednesdays in the Wild, INPAWS RIP Squad, and “Native Roots” newsletter, of which she is the editor
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