From the Desk of: James P. Eagleman, Interpretive Naturalist
Brown County State Park Nature Center
P.O. Box 608
Nashville, Indiana 47448
(812) 988-5240
FAX: (812) 988-5241
Email: jeagleman@dnr.state.in.us

April 1, 2002

Dr, George Parker, Forest Ecologist
Purdue University
Dept. of Forestry and Natural Resources
1159 Forestry Building
W. Lafayette, IN 47907

Dear George;

As an update to an earlier letter to you, dated Feb. 19, 2001 requesting my assessment of the
recovering vegetation at Brown County State Park, I am prepared to offer the following
comments on its current status.

One year and 2 months since my last letter to you, I must refer to last summer's growing
season when I observed a "slight increase" in the numbers of the plants I mentioned earlier:
Cutleafed Toothwort, Spring Larkspur and Hepatica. This small increase is only in the
mere number of these individual plants, many only with leaves, no flowers, and hardly any
plant showing more than just one bloom. I understand it takes several growing seasons for
these and other ephemerals to produce a flowering stalk from the roots and leaves, and for
multiple flowers, even longer. While an increase is noticed in areas formerly devoid of any
greenery, these plants are just now getting a substantial start at growth. Dogtooth Violet is
another example of a plant that has shown an increase in numbers, sometimes covering large
areas, due to vegetative growth, but they are small, many only inches tall and flowerless.

Hardy park species of Spring Beauty and Anemone produced blooms, as they have for years,
but I had noticed later in the growing season that they had not gone to seed, so something had
interrupted their maturing. I can only surmise this can possibly be due to poor soils, herbi-
vory, lack of needed sunlight as the canopy became established or cold. Possibly a combination
of these limiting factors was at work. So with these persistent and fairly common wildflowers as
examples, in some areas of the park, we see a very slow but determined recovery.

I cannot say the more rare species faired as well. Yellow Ladies Slipper Orchids and the Showy
Orchis showed signs of browsing through their flowering period; thus no seeds were produced.
In some cases, a hardy rootstock, stems and two large leaf blades insured a healthy bloom, but
they showed obvious signs of being nipped off.

Woody shrubs, tree seedlings and saplings continue to show growth, a promising aspect as they
were the first hit and most noticeably absent when high deer numbers prevailed. They con-
tinue to grow, some show signs of browse, but a slow return to the herbal layer, and soon the
understory. Flowering Dogwood, Sassafras, and oak and maple seedlings are the ones most
noticeably seen throughout the park.

Thank you for this opportunity to provide an update.

CC: John Goss, Director, DNR
Jerry Pagac, Director, State Parks and Reservoirs
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