В Огайо оценивают здоровье молодых лесов с помощью пластиковых трубок

Tree survey studies health and progress of new local forests MONCLOVA, Ohio (WTVG) - The next time you’re in one of Toledo’s 19 Metroparks, you might see a bunch of 4 feet tall plastic tubes with trees growing out of them. But that’s not litter: those plastic tubes are actually helping the trees grow. “This is part of a long-term effort to do reforestation around the county,” said Tim Schetter, senior ecologist with Metroparks Toledo. “Over the last 10 years we’ve planted something like 150,000 trees to establish over 300 acres of new forest.” One of those new forests in the Oak Openings region was planted by the Metroparks in 2021, and you can find many others like it around Lucas County. A lot of these new forests are being put into marginal croplands acquired by the Metroparks over the years. “We’ve been losing biodiversity, we’ve been losing species globally… and a lot of that is because of simple habitat loss,” added Schetter. Invasive species have also been compromising our local forests and destroying native habitat, and combating them is another aspect of this effort. “In some areas, the goal is to reestablish forests and then in other areas there might be goals to actually clear out some of the non-native plants,” explained Scott Abella. Abella is originally from the Toledo area, but now teaches at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas as a professor of restoration ecology. This ongoing project in our neck of the woods all started 2 decades ago when Abella interned with Metroparks Toledo. Even though he now lives and works out west, the collaboration continues, along with the stewardship needed for this habitat restoration project. “We’re here checking on the ecological health of these types of Metroparks habitats,” Abella told us. “So just kind of like a regular health checkup, see how they’re doing, see how some additional management might be needed to keep improving these sites.” “This is what we call Adaptive Resource Management,” added Schetter. “So, you implement a management practice like planting trees and for it to actually work, you have to evaluate the success of that. You need to do research.” All the data collected by both Schetter and Abella will be analyzed by teams of students at UNLV in conjunction with Metroparks Toledo. Butterflies, pollinators, birds, and many other species benefit from new and improved native habitat, but it’s not just the wildlife. These forests also aid in cleaning the water we drink, and the air we breath. “We are looking well into the future,” said Schetter. “So these forests that we’re planting here will benefit future residents 100, 200 years from now.” Latest Local News | First Alert Weather | Crime | National | 13abc Originals Copyright 2026 WTVG. All rights reserved.