A.B. Brooks Nature Follower and Friend Visits Schrader Center

We had a wonderful visitor today that tied present-day to our past.  Mr. Edwin R. “Ted” Spears of Wheeling came in to visit the Schrader Center and reminisce about the walks that he participated in with Mr. A.B. Brooks.  Alonzo Beecher Brooks was Oglebay Institute’s original naturalist from 1927 – 1944, and he started many traditions that we sustain today.  The current Astronomy program and Mountain Nature Camp were born from the foresight and efforts of Mr. Brooks, as well as the nature walks that Mr. Spears proudly participated in during the mid-1900’s.

Mr. Brooks had such a big following for his nature walks that the A.B. Brooks Nature Center was built in 1954 to provide shelter to nature program participants. That building stood for nearly 50 years before the Schrader Environmental Education Center was built in 2000. The Schrader Center pays tribute to Mr. Brooks by continuing his commitments through a Thursday evening volunteer-administered Astronomy program at 9:00pm and morning Guided Nature Walks every Tuesday at 10:00am. The Brooks Bird Club was named in recognition of Mr. Brooks, as well as Oglebay’s A.B. Brooks Discovery trails—the same trails that Mr. Brooks used during his notable time as naturalist.

Mr. Spears also knew Henry Stifel Schrader, a founding member of Oglebay Institute who presided over the dedication of the A.B. Brooks Nature Center.  As a tribute to Mr. Schrader’s commitment to both the company and the community, the Schrader Environmental Education Center is named in his honor.  The Schrader Center recognizes both remarkable men and the legacy they left.  Mr. Spears, 92, was accompanied by Mary-Bess Halford, librarian at Bethany College for 16 years. For more information about our Tuesday morning Nature Walks and Astronomy program, please call the Schrader Center at 304-242-6855.  – By Sara Fincham, Schrader Center Customer Service Representative.

GigaPan Magazine Selects Schrader Center as Finalist

GigaPan Magazine recently selected one the Schrader Center’s GigaPan photos as a finalist in the Nearby Nature “gigablitz” from this past winter.  Check out the winning Hardwood Ridge GigaPan here!

Some of the juror’s comments about the Schrader Center’s GigaPan:  ”captures nature’s resilience to human modification.” · “evidence of the continuation of plant life cycles – mosses, fungi, and insects are working to break down the logs so that other things might grow there.”

GigaPans are digital images with billions of pixels, with remarkably crisp and vivid detail, all captured in the context of a single brilliant photo. Using a series of robotic camera mounts to capture photos using almost any digital camera, GigaPan Stitch Software automatically combines hundreds of images taken into a single image.

Spring Blooms Abound on Oglebay’s Trails

Yellow Violet

By Jake Francis, Director of Environmental Education  – These flowers were seen in flower or fruit along the trails of Oglebay Park on April 20.  A recent hike proved that many are still in bloom, if not further along than they were 2 weeks ago! Come hike the trails at Oglebay and experience the beauty of spring as it blooms.

Blue Violet

Two-leafed Miterwort (Mitella diphyllum) – This plant is named after a clerical hat– miter, also called bishops cap because the flowers are similar in shape.  Falls Vista Trail.

Sweet White Violet

Blue Violet (Viola sororia) – This small purple flower is very common along the trails.  Most violets produce two types of flower; one that is open for sexual reproduction and one that never opens, called a   cleistogamous flower, that self fertilizes.  All trails.

Round-leafed Violet (Viola rotundifolia) – This plant is similar to the blue violet except for its rounded leaves.  All trails.

Northern White Violet (Viola canadensis) – A beautiful white violet that is slightly less common than its congeners on our trails.  Falls ravine trail and Hardwood Ridge Trail.

Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) – A large plant that causes birth defects in mammals, the blue cohosh generally escapes browsing from the deer.  This genus is only found in Eastern US and Asia.  Hardwood Ridge trail.

Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa) – Similar leaf arrangement to the blue cohosh but with acute leaf apicies. Hardwood Ridge trail.

Bear Corn

Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata) – This long-blooming spring wildflower has five fused petals that form a tube and spread at the apex of the flower.  This shape is called salverform.  All trails.

Blue Cohosh

 Large-flowered Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) – One of the earliest and showiest spring wildflowers, the Large flowered trillium ranges from white to (the more uncommon) deep red.  the white form blushes pink with age. (hardwood ridge trail–uncommon on trails)

Bear Corn (Conopholis americana) – This plant is a saprophyte, and is non-photosynthetic.  It parasitizes the roots of trees, particularly beech and oak.  This plant gets its name from its extrememe laxative properties, which bear take advantage of after their winter hybernation! All trails.

Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) –This large-leafed blue flowered plant is easily recognized by its large round-elliptical leaves growing in clumps throughout our woods.  Hardwood Ridge trail.

Virginia Bluebells

 Giant Chickweed (Stellaria pubera) – Though this plant is called the giant chickweed the flowers are rarely larger than 12mm across.  All trails–very common.

Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica) – See our earlier blog post for some interesting ecological stories about the spring beauty; this plant is almost done flowering!   All trails.

Golden Ragwort

Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea) – This aster is common along roadsides and along our trails. All trails.

Jack in the Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) —  An interesting inflorescence called a spadix surrounded by a leafy spathe.  This flower is a perennial that stores starches in an underground root, and produces anthers (male parts) when small, and carpels (female parts) when it becomes larger. All trails.

Jack in the Pulpit

Spotted/ Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum) —  This showy spring wildflower is fairly common in the park.  All trails.

Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum) – This wildflower gets its name from the shape of its perennial rootstock.  The root is marked along its length with scars from previous years flowering stems, and when cut in cross section is said to resemble letters of the Hebrew alphabet.  Falls Vista trail.

Large Flowered Trillium

Bracken Strawberry (Waldsteinia fragarioides) – This plant will be in fruit almost all summer, and though the bright red aggregate fruit (that resembles a strawberry) is not palatable, birds have been observed picking and eating the fruit.  All trails.

Creeping Buttercup (I)– Ranunculus repens

Garlic Mustard (I)– Alliaria petiolata

Common Chickweed (I)– Stellaria media

Come Hike the Trails to see the Spring Beauties in Bloom!

By Jake Francis, Director of Education, Schrader Center — The first Spring Beauties “Claytonia virginica” bloomed this week along the Falls Vista Trail.  This quintessential spring wildflower is the first showy NATIVE plant seen blooming  along our trails at the Schrader Center, opening when the temperature raises above 11 C (~52 F).  The really interesting story about this plant lies in the difference in flower color from individual.  The majority of flowers (including the individuals observed this week) are white with variable pink lines on the petals.  If you search many plants though, you will find that a large portion of plants produce deep pink/purplish flowers.  Interestingly, the deep colored flowers are pollinated more often by flies and bees, so one might think they would be more common, but a study found that a certain species of slug also prefer to eat the leaves of pink-flowered plants (making them less successful!)

These interesting little ephemeral will bloom as long as the temperature is warm enough and the canopy is open.  If you chance across a pink individual while hiking our trails, snap a photo and we will add it to this blog post.