Although floodplain forests were often removed for agriculture some park districts are recognizing the importance of restoring that distinctive vegetation type by buying floodplain farms and letting them succeed to forest.  Relatively few studies of the resultant succession have been done.  In 2001 and again in 2003, the FiveRivers Metroparks District (Montgomery County, Ohio) purchased two bottomland fields bordering Twin Creek near Germantown, Ohio, and allowed them to undergo succession.  To determine initial trends, permanent transects were established in 2007 and surveyed once per year for three consecutive years (2007-2009).  Tree seedlings and saplings were counted, identified to species, and categorized into five size categories ( 0.00-0.36 m high, 0.36-1.00 m, 1.00-1.36 m, 0.1-5.0 cm diameter at breast height (DBH), 5.0-10.0 cm DBH).

Results/Conclusions

Our results show that Acer negundo is dominating succession in both fields, although the course of succession varies in each field.  In the older field (abandoned in 2001), A. negundo has increased in relative abundance, rising from 42% relative abundance in 2007 to 54% in 2009.  In contrast, Acer saccharinum, Platanus occidentalis, and Populus deltoides have decreased, with P. deltoides decreasing the most from 27% to 9%.  In contrast, in the younger field (abandoned in 2003), A. negundo dominated early, with >90% of all stems in 2007, and declined slightly to 87% by 2009.  A. saccharinum has become more abundant, rising from 4% in 2007 to 8% in 2009.  This study shows that A. negundo can dominate early succession bottomland fields in southwestern Ohio and complements other studies that show A. negundo comprises up to 50% of individual stems in established bottomland forests in southwestern Ohio.