Wildflower Walk with the Chautauqua Lake Conservancy

Evie with Becky Nystrom, JCC biologist at LakeErie

With Sue Mc Gill at mouth of Chautauqua Creek

Tulip tree leaves

Getting info about the Walk

Discussing the Greenery

We met a group of about twenty five people Saturday morning at 10:30 , at the home of Jim and Sue Mc Gill, friends of the conservancy.  They live just off of Rt.  5, about 3/4 of mile west of Barcelona, off of North Gun Club Road.  They have a cottage and an additional 15 acres of woods, paths, wildlife, mostly untouched, and it fronts both Chautauqua Creek and Lake Erie.  We spent about two hours meandering through the woods, stopping to exam and name most of the plants along the paths. Unfortunately, there were few spring flowers, either it's still to early or the snow killed them off about three weeks ago.  It was fun to have a naturalist with us, who could identify just about anything with green leaves, and tell us about it.  The woods were filled with tulip trees  or yellow poplar, for some reason, along with the other great trees of this areas, maples, beech and ash, the last two, however, are besieged by diseases which may wipe them out.  Becky Nystrom, the naturalist, also pointed out the most invasive of all plants, garlic mustard, which propagates easily and can snuff out an entire forest if allowed to run rampant, which it has done in some forests in Wisconsin.  She mentioned an indigenous azalea, called Pinkster, which we will try to find along with the following: cinnamon fern, jack in the pulpit, Virginia creeper, Garlic Mustard, May Apple,  cranberry viburnum (indigenous), cucumber tree, along with various wild berries.

The property abuts the creek, which is about a ten to fifteen foot drop, so it would be hard to get down to it, so we just walked along a path to the lake, walked out on the sand and over to the mouth of Chautauqua creek, teeming at the moment with carp, spawning because we could see them moving in the water.  It's a lovely beach, lots of driftwood, mostly undeveloped, at least the shore line is all woods in both directions except for on huge Mc Mansion, about a mile to the west, which has cut down all the trees in their yard so they have a view.  This ought not be allowed like in Maine: no trees can be cut within 150 of water.

The Mc Gills are from Columbus, Ohio, but also lived for twenty five years in North Royalton.  They are really a nice couple and invited us back anytime to walk the woods, or hit the beach.  I really want to walk a good part of Chautauqua Creek, perhaps as far as as Hannum Road. where we enter the Gorge, about twenty miles roughly.