Outdoor education wisps through Southview Black Oaks Savanna

Todd Crail, a lecturer of Environmental Sciences for the University of Toledo, photographs wild blue lupine and white lupine along the University Trails bike and walk path near the Southview Savanna.

Nature lovers received an educational tour of the Southview Black Oaks Savanna, featuring remnants of the sandy dunes left behind from the glacial thaw 12,000 years ago.

PHOTO GALLERY: Southview Black Oaks Savanna

About a dozen hikers met at Organic Bliss on King Road at 10 a.m.  today to take the tour of the seven acres that makeup the Oak Openings patchwork of habitats across the northwest Ohio region. The land behind Southview High School is owned by the Sylvania School District, and has been under the care of the Olander Park System for about 10 years. 

“This is the only hike of the area we have planned this year,” said Erika Buri, Olander Park’s conservation manager.

Ms. Buri led the group through the wooded area to see the progress of the park’s restoration efforts that included replanting indigenous flowers such as the wild blue lupine, which is technically a legume, she said. The native flower is synonymous with the Oak Openings Region.

So is the sandy soil that the tall oaks and native flowers take root in including wild blueberries and the perennial yellow flower the hairy puccoon.

Ms. Buri also educated the participants on how the managed land has flourished in the past 10 years.

Contact Natalie Trusso Cafarello at: 419-206-0356 or ntrusso@theblade.com