- [Narrator] Forest ecosystems are home to numerous wondrous species.

From towering trees, to the tiniest insects, life in the forest is more vibrant and diverse than meets the eye.

But with every forest species possessing its own unique characteristics, a trained eye can learn to recognize this magnificent variety of forest species.

Distinguishing friendly natives from harmful invasives, this is, "By Nature's Design: "Inside the Forest.

"Flora and Fauna".

(bright orchestral music) (birds chirping) - A native species is a species that has been here for a long time, and over that time, it's basically adapted to survive and to thrive in an environment.

It's adapted to the climate conditions, to soils, and also just coexisting with other species.

So it's something that, you could think about as more of like this is a species that's naturally here because it's had a long time to evolve and adapt to those conditions in which it thrives.

It's important to maintain native species because it's really those native species help add to the biodiversity of our forest.

It's about the functionality of a forest, and the health of a forest can be determined based on what native species are there.

(bright music) - Native species are critical for Ohio's forest because they support so much biodiversity within our forest.

You know, plants in general, especially our native plants, sort of form the base of our food web in our ecosystems.

They're the host plant for lots of native organisms, insects, things like moths and butterflies, and those in turn are critical food sources for other wildlife like birds and mammals.

(bright music continues) - [Narrator] Have you ever wondered how researchers distinguish one plant species from another?

There are indicators such as how the leaves are arranged on a stem or the texture of bark that help provide insight in the identification process.

- So identifying trees is a great art.

There's so many things you can look at and so many details that you can learn about each individual tree.

Depending on the size of the tree, the leaf is probably the easiest thing to look at, but if the tree's too tall, it's really hard to look at a leaf.

In those cases, you start looking at the bark and finding out the difference in the texture.

Is it smooth?

Is it rough?

If you can reach a branch, then you can see what the buds look like on that branch.

(gentle music) (birds chirping) You can look at the change in the coloration from the bark to the twigs.

You can look at leaf bundle scars that occur where the leaves are attached when they fall off in the fall.

Winter ID can be totally different things to look at than during the summer when you have leaves on.

So time of year plays a part as well in identifying a tree.

Within the leaves themselves, you can find out the pattern of how they're attached to the tree.

Are they opposite?

(gentle music continues) Are they alternate?

Are they whorled going around the stem?

What differences do you observe in that and the branching overall in the tree as well?

And then within the leaf even further, you can look at the shape of the leaf, the edges.

Is it toothed?

Is it wavy?

Is it lobed?

You can look at how the leaves are arranged.

Is it a true leaf or is it a leaflet where it has a center rib and then a bunch of little parts attached to it like a black walnut tree?

- There's also a lot of different apps you can use, things like iNaturalist, or you could go old school and bring out just a paper identification guide to help, to help figure things out.

But it's really knowing and keying in on those characteristics is what's useful when you're trying to identify a species.

(gentle music continues) - An example of a native tree would be sassafras.

It's a really cool tree, unique in that it has three different leaf shapes all on one tree.

shaped leaf, So you can have a smooth single or you can have one that looks like a mitten, or you can have one that has three fingers to it and kind of looks more like a little ghost.

(light upbeat music) (birds chirping) - One common and important tree species in our area would be white oak.

Quercus alba is the scientific name.

So as with all oak species, the buds of white oak are clustered at the terminal end of the twig, so that's one thing to look for.

The leaves have usually seven to nine rounded lobes.

The bark of white oak is typically light gray and is rough or scaly or sometimes platy in appearance and texture.

They can be one of the largest trees that we have here in Ohio, and they can grow to be over 100 feet tall.

(upbeat music continues) Oaks in general, but particularly white oaks, are really important for a lot of our native insect species.

Those in turn are critical food sources for a lot of other larger wildlife species like birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and other species like that.

Blue jays are a common forest bird species in Ohio, and they do have a connection with oak trees.

(birds chirping) They are known to feed on acorns, especially in the fall when those acorns ripen, but they are also known to move those acorns around and occasionally will cache them in the forest floor.

And that is really important for dispersal of oak trees to move into new areas and become established where otherwise they wouldn't.

(upbeat music continues) - Red oak, it's a tree that we see in both Western Pennsylvania and Ohio.

It's important from a wildlife perspective because it provides shelter.

It is a dominant tree in a lot of our forest types, and it also provides hard mast, which is what the acorns are called.

So it's those nuts that the tree produces help feed wildlife and also help grow new red oak seedlings.

(light gentle music) Squirrels are a common wildlife species that we see in our forest.

They depend on the forest for food and protection.

Red oak not only provides food for turkey, provides food for deer, and also for squirrels.

And we all know about the squirrels' ability to collect acorns and cache them away for a colder winter day.

(light gentle music) (light bright music) - Wild turkey are also native to Ohio.

They do forage through the forests.

Oftentimes you can see evidence of them raking and stirring up the leaves looking for grubs and insects, seeds and nuts.

So they provide a lot of different things there where they're moving around the leaf litter, disturbing it, yes, but stirring it up so that it can continue to break down and provide those nutrients to the forest.

(bright music continues) - Native trees and native species really form the base of our food web within our naturally functioning forest.

If we lose those species, we lose critical habitat for a lot of wildlife that might depend upon those tree species for their habitat.

(light dramatic music) You know, also our native species are co-evolved and well adapted for growing in our soils and climate.

- So when you throw something in like an invasive species that disrupts that natural rhythm within the forest, that can be really problematic and can change the processes of the forest.

Reasons why an invasive species is so harmful to our native vegetation and also our native flora, you know, our native flora and fauna overall is because of the characteristics of invasive species.

Invasive species are able to take over an area.

An area might be just poor from an environmental standpoint, from like a soil standpoint, but the species, the invasive species does really well.

It's able to grow quickly and occupy niches that maybe other species weren't occupying.

It also is a very prolific seed producer for some of the plants, and so it can reproduce very quickly.

So you end up having a loss of native species when invasive species move in.

(light dramatic music) - [Narrator] The rapid takeover of invasive species is a leading force of destruction in forest ecosystems.

As invasives drive out native species, it leaves the forest starving for the benefits native species provide such as food and habitat.

(dramatic music continues) (birds chirping) - So often the difference between a native species versus an invasive species can be hard to discern visually.

A lot of it comes back to time of year that you're looking.

The invasive species follow a different schedule usually, and they're adaptable.

And so that's one of those things where they green up sooner.

They stay green longer.

They grow in a different period than the native plants do, and so that gives them the edge on getting the resources and the water, and the nutrients that they need to be able to grow.

(dramatic music continues) An example of invasives could be something like honeysuckle that greens up earlier in the spring and stays green later into the fall causing problems in some ways, because it will shade out native wildflowers that are dependent on trees not being leafed out too early in the spring.

So by disrupting the light cycle, they have pushed out and shaded out the native wildflowers that would be growing on that forest section.

Honeysuckle in most of Stark Parks where we see it tends to be a smaller shrub.

It has kind of an exfoliating ridged bark.

It can vary in size greatly from little stems the size of a pencil, you know, growing two or three feet tall, to something that's maybe six inches tall or six inches around and growing up to 8, 10, maybe 12 feet tall at times.

You don't have a lot of wildflowers, if any, growing underneath.

You don't have many of the midstory trees.

You don't see the regeneration of the young trees growing up through it because they're all shaded out and displaced by the honeysuckle.

(somber music) - One example of an invasive tree species that has impacted forests here in Ohio heaven.

would be tree of (somber music continues) Another name that it's referred to is the genus name of the species, which is Ailanthus, but tree of heaven was intentionally introduced back in the late 1700s to be plante as an ornamental tree species.

But since that time, it has rapidly spread into a lot of natural areas.

So in some areas this tree has become so well established that it's outcompeting native plants.

It's forming essentially  heaven.

a monoculture of only tree of It also can produce chemicals in the soil that inhibit the growth of other plant species, and that's a phenomenon known as allelopathy.

of heaven has Tree less wildlife value than a lot of our native plant species do, so there aren't that many species of birds, insects n that are feeding on or utilizing tree of heave like they would our native tree species.

So for that reason, it tends to degrade the quality of wildlife habitat where it becomes established.

(somber music continues) (birds chirping) - Tree of heaven has very unique characteristics.

So it has a leaf that is compound.

So that means you've got your central, basically your central stem, and you've got little leaflets coming off it, and there's one little leaflet at the top.

Those leaflets also have a glandular tooth.

So if you look really closely, you'll see this little divot, and that's one way to identify it.

If you crush the leaf, it has this really stinky smell.

It's been described as it smells like rancid peanuts.

I don't know if I've ever smelled rancid peanuts, tree of heaven smells like.

but I know what tree So that's a good way to identify it.

If you look at the bark, the bark is this grayish color, and it looks like cantaloupe skin.

So that's another good way to just put those characteristics together, and collectively that gives you a picture of heaven of what tree looks like.

(light dramatic music) (birds chirping) There are several insect species that come to mind when I think about damaging invasive species that have damaged our forest.

I think one that has just been very impactful really within just a few years, and that is the emerald ash borer.

It's a beetle.

It's this beautiful emerald color, this, like, bright shiny green color, and it has moved through the forests of both Ohio and Pennsylvania and a very wide range of the United States and killed the adult ash.

(light dramatic music) - Often when you walk into a forest, you want to see diversity of things.

If you see only one species of something growing, that's a sign that it could be being taken over by an invasive.

Not always the case.

There could be other things, but sometimes that individual item stands out as a monoculture.

And when you have a monoculture, you lack the diversity.

You lack the ability to withstand changes to environment, changes to weather, changes to disease and pests.

And so instead of having one tree or a couple of trees maybe die, maybe a bunch of trees die.

(light somber music) - Typically, these nonnative invasive species do not have predators or diseases here to keep their population in check like they would from their native range.

So a lot of times they can just really spread, and they can really reproduce exponentially and spread quickly.

Unfortunately, there are very few forested areas left in the state that are completely free of any invasive species, and invasive species aren't recognizing humancreated boundaries.

So we can do management on one parcel, but obviously if that management isn't happening on a neighboring parcel where invasives are present, they could always be moving back into that area.

So continued monitoring and quick response to new infestations is important.

(light dramatic music) - [Narrator] While the spread of invasive species is rampant, there are hardworking organizations dedicated to their removal.

Once invasive species are removed, forests are slowly able to return to a healthy equilibrium.

(light gentle music) - Really, ever since the glaciers receded after the Ice Age, humans have shaped the forests here in Ohio and in our region.

I think learning about forests, how they function, forest ecology, is really important for people to know.

We have a lot of great experts that are knowledgeable about forests within the state.

Whether that's here at ODNR, OSU Extension, you know, local park districts and stuff like that we have a lot of experts that people can go to to learn a lot about our forests here.

So I think that's really important for folks to be interested in, to learn about.

(light upbeat music) - So I know within Stark Parks, we do a lot of work on dealing with invasive species.

There's plenty of work to go around because there are so many of them in so many places, but we do spend as natural resource department a lot of time working on invasives and dealing with invasives, trying to prevent the spread of invasives.

So in our travels and our survey work, we're looking for and trying to identify invasives where they are, and then developing a plan of how would we treat that?

How would we address it?

How will we contain and control it?

Is it something we can do right now, or is it something we have to delay?

Is it something that requires more equipment or different treatment or different timing?

Is it something that we have the manpower to handle right now?

So we spend a lot of time personally within our department doing that work, but there's a lot of others within the state that are also doing that work.

(bright hopeful music) There's a lot of things as an individual that you can do to prevent the spread of invasive species.

One is learning to identify what's in your yard or in the woods that you frequent and knowing what's there.

And then when you see something that's not normally there or something that's different, finding out what it is.

Being curious is a great starting point.

(bright music continues) - There's a lot going on right now just from a forest health standpoint.

We have invasive species moving through.

We have some tree species being lost, and then add the additional stress of climate change.

All of these things are forces working against our forest.

And so we will continue to have forests, it's just the forests may be different.

Although the species composition may change, it's important that those ecosystem functions that benefit plants, animals, and humans remain intact.

(light upbeat music) - While there are many stressors facing our forests, things like invasive species, changing climate, urbanization, you know, I do believe our forests are resilient.

The vast majority of our Eastern forests were completely cleared after European settlement around the turn of the century, and they've largely rebounded and returned in many places to a healthy functioning forest.

So I think in the face of all these threats, our forests are really resilient and can bounce back and can be productive functioning ecosystems.

(bright hopeful music) - We can all play a role in maintaining the health of the forests around us, going and enjoying them, learning about what's in them, identifying the different trees and plants that occur there, and then noticing when something changes and then notifying someone who's over that area and saying, "Hey, this doesn't look like it belongs," or, "I found this," or reporting something through an app or some other space to the park or whoever is managing that land to let them know, "Hey, something is trying to edge in to invade this space.

"I saw this when I was here."

We all have the opportunity to clean up after ourselves when we are out in the park or in the forest.

You know, don't leave trash behind.

Take it with you.

If somebody else left trash behind, pick it up.

(gentle music) We also can do things at home as far as the plants that we choose to plant around our house.

You can choose something that's native.

You can choose something that has a pretty color, but you can also do that without choosing something that's invasive or going to become invasive.

There's plenty of choices and alternates available to different plants.

You just have to go and choose that.

(bright orchestral music) - The more we can educate our youth and the more we can get people excited about what we have and why we need to protect it, like, we're instilling a sense of value about these landscape features that will hopefully continue into the future.

And so I do have hope.

I have hope when I see my nephew being really excited about things that he found and just being excited about going into the woods and like hearing an owl.

Like those are things that give me hope is that the future generations are recognizing the importance.

They are the future stewards of our planet, and so educating is so important.

(light upbeat music) - [Narrator] Forests are essential to humans, wildlife, and plants.

These ecosystems store carbon and provide habitat and food all while battling invasive species.

With our help at-risk forests can reestablish themselves and continue thriving well into the future.

And the next time you walk into the forest, look around and see what flora and fauna you can identify "By Nature's Design".

(bright orchestral music) (bright music continues)