Have you ever wondered how Ohio’s land mass and plant life came about according to science? Did you know humans changed this natural resource and its fate for our wildlife?

To begin answering these questions we need to look at Ohio’s geological past. Geology is a science that deals with the earth’s physical structure and substance, its history, and the processes that act on it.

Way back about 990 million years ago volcanic activity deposited igneous and metamorphic rock on the surface. Igneous rock is when molten lava cools and crystalizes. Metamorphic rock is formed by adding heat from the earth’s molten lava and pressure from the atmospheric gasses being pressed into the igneous rock. Interesting the marble found in the Wood County Courthouse is metamorphic rock formed almost a million years ago!

During the Silurian and Cambrian period from approximately 542 to 416 million years ago, Ohio was 10-20 degrees from the equator and covered by warm shallow salt seawater. Periodic ash from volcanic activity to the east of Ohio periodically covered the area. The shallow saltwater seas were a limy calcium-based solution. Salt bearing basins began to occur in Northern Ohio.

During the Devonian and Mississippian period from approximately 416 towards 318 million years ago, Ohio started to dry out, though occasionally was recovered by shallow limy saltwater seas. The biggest change started in the Permian and Pennsylvanian period approximately 318 to 251million years ago. This period had freshwater in the area and Ohio was for the most part a swamp. Due to freshwater intrusion and other factors sedimentary rock appeared consisting of sandstone, shale, and freshwater limestone. During the Mesozoic period from approximately 251 to 2.6 million years, ago Ohio rose above sea level.

Finally, the Quaternary period is from 2.6 million years ago to present. During that time freshwater glaciers covered two thirds of Ohio with over a mile thick ice and have since retreated. One of these glaciers called the Wisconsin glacier carved out NW Ohio approximately 10,000 to 20,000 years ago and ice was over five miles thick that flattened NW Ohio leaving the Great Black Swamp and Lake Erie in its wake.

The soils created from eroding rock, swamp life plants, and other conditions from all the geological events created a land mass that was 95% forest cover, and the rest in prairie grasses. This was what the early European settlers found in the early 1700s. The wildlife that roamed the area consisted of passenger pigeons, Carolina parakeets, prairie chickens, white-tailed deer, beaver, elk, bison, black bears, wolves, mountain lions, and other assorted wildlife.

I find it truly amazing if not depressing as how humans in a short time of only 200 years changed the Ohio landscape to only 10% forest cover and if not for the Great Black Swamp most of our prairie grasses.

Between habitat change and humans disregard for our native wildlife during the early 1900s we lost forever the passenger pigeons and Carolina parakeets. Also lost from the Ohio landscape was prairie chickens, beaver, elk, bison, black bears, wolves, and mountain lions.

Thanks to the stewardship of The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife Ohio and Ohio citizens, the State of Ohio has seen changes in its wildlife in the past 100 years. Beavers are reestablished in the Eastern parts of Ohio and spreading across the state. Sand hill cranes, ospreys, peregrine falcons, and trumpeter swans are nesting again in Ohio. River otters is no longer on the states endangered list. The white-taileddeer population is approaching over a million deer!

The restoration of the wild turkey in Ohio is among the state’s most notable wildlife success stories. Wild turkeys were declared extinct in 1909, and the Division of Wildlife began reintroducing wild turkeys to the Buckeye State in the 1950s. For the next five decades, the wild turkey population grew and expanded rapidly. By 1999, wild turkeys were found in all 88 counties.

Bald eagle nesting is continuing to rise along with the sighting of bobcats. Though black bears are currently an endangered species in Ohio, the resident black bear populations are growing with an estimated 30 to 60 bears living in the state.

The Author greatly acknowledges the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for contributing information for this article.