Volunteers help plant the way for Timberman Ridge MetroPark reforestation efforts

Joe Dumyahn, senior natural resources manager at MetroParks of Butler County, has been focused on Timberman Ridge and its reforestation efforts.

“I don’t think a lot of people know about this park, and this is one of my favorite parks,” he said.

Additions of paved trails, parking lots and a playground have brought some new visitors to the park, but much of the most important work is being done far beyond the exterior.

The two areas of new trees are called “exclosures,” which work to keep deer — perpetrators of tree destruction — and other large mammals out.

Anything that is planted will get eaten by deer, and if it is not eaten, deer will use their antlers to destroy the trees, according to Dumyahn.

“If you don’t have some type of protection in Southwest Ohio, you will lose your tree,” he said.

Thirty-seven percent of the trees planted are oak species since oak trees, especially white oak, provide many benefits to wildlife.

Oaks provide the most habitat and home for different insects and pollinators, according to Kalan Jones, assistant natural resources manager and MetroParks’ ISA certified arborist.

“Trees are incredible, whether they’re in a forested area or in a neighborhood,” Jones said.

The two areas for new trees were not randomly selected: “What we’re actually doing is we’re connecting to existing forested areas,” Dumyahn said.

The same acreage fragmented or broken up is less valuable, more vulnerable to environmental impact and contain less carbon due to exterior trees not doing as well as interior.

“The work that he’s doing and his team is doing is so critical to creating a healthy habitat and healthy land for the next...100, 150 years down the road,” said Katie Ely-Wood, communications manager for MetroParks of Butler County. “We may not see the benefit of a nice shaded path in our lifetime...but in a hundred years, that’s going to change drastically.”

In another 10 years, when the trees are more mature, the fence keeping out deer can be taken down.

“It’s more useable at that point,” Dumyahn said.

A nearby greenhouse at Timberman Ridge is used to propagate and foster hundreds of trees and plants, many of which will be planted during the volunteer tree planting program in the fall.