Black River Audubon Society to plant trees, bushes

The Black River Audubon Society plans to use new grant funds to bring birds back to a piece of land in Oberlin. The society, also known as BRAS, is teaming up with the Western Reserve Land Conservancy and Oberlin-centric organizations to bring shrubs and trees back to a field on Hamilton Street which has historical significance, according to Jim Jablonski, the Audubon Society’s president. The planting will take place from 1-4 p.m., April 28. Group members will plant plants and trees that could have been used along the Underground Railroad as well as plants that are “bird friendly,” according to Audubon Society board member Kate Pilacky.

Pilacky said the plants were researched by Oberlin College students and that the conservancy also reviewed botanical survey data from the late 1800s to ensure the plants are historically accurate. “The whole thing is just so neat,” she said.

60-year legacy

The Audubon Society is a birdwatching, or birding, group that has been in operation for more than 60 years and is trying to branch out into more conservation and restoration projects, Jablonski said. “The whole birding movement is trying to do that including the National Audubon Society,” he said. “Until recently, our main things were going on field trips or writing about birds. “We’d listen to speakers at our meetings talking about various birds.” The $2,900 National Audubon Burke Plants for Birds grant is the second such funding award the Black River Audubon Society has received. Last year, the organization received $2,500, which Jablonski said was used to perform a similar restoration to an Elyria park.

“We have been successful with both of our applications which I find pretty amazing, because about one-third or less of applicants get this,” he said. In last year’s project, the Audubon Society planted trees along the Black River in Elyria. “The land was donated to Elyria by our founder, Jack Smith, but he wanted it to be called the Black River Audubon Park,” Jablonski said. “For years, it was just sort of there with a sign but nothing much happening with it.” In January 2018, Jablonski received an email on the grants and thought it would be a good fit for the park. So he handed it over to Pilacky and Andy Lance, who are both members of the Audubon Society board. “They took it and ran with it, and we were considered one of the best grant (proposals) in the country,” he said. “(The National Audubon Society) said there were just a handful that they considered as highly as ours.” The National Audubon Society was so impressed with the project that Jablonski said they sent professional videographers to cover the progress. A May 25 article on the national group’s website titled “Once a Polluted Mess, Now a Healthy Riverside Park,” said several birders, volunteers and students planted 12 different trees, including black cherry, red cedar, bur oak and butternut, as well as flowering shrubs.

Oberlin planting

Once this year’s round of Burke family grants came around, Jablonski said he thought it was unlikely the Audubon Society would receive it two years in a row, but he passed it along to Lance and Pilacky anyway. “They had a great idea of doing it in a different city this time: Oberlin,” he said. The Audubon Society partnered with the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, of which Pilacky is the associate field director of its Firelands Field Office, on the new project. “They own this piece of land on the south end of Oberlin near the (Lorain County) Metro Parks’ Splash Zone,” he said. “It is part of what was once called the Oberlin Great South Woods. Half of it is woods, and half of it is a field.” Pilacky said the land conservancy has tried to restore the land for about a decade, but only came to possess it in 2016. That land is also known as the former Copeland Family Farm.

The land owners

Titus Street and Samuel Hughes of New Haven, Conn., were the first owners of the land which was part of the Connecticut Western Reserve. The land was then sold to Hiram A. Pease, whose family controlled the property until 1862, according to a highly detailed article on the land by Ronald and Nancy Hendrikson published on an Oberlin College website. In 1863, the property passed to Delilah Evans Copeland, one of Oberlin’s early black settlers. Evans Copeland and her husband, John A. Copeland, both were born during the first decade of the 1800s in North Carolina and left on a trip that landed them in Oberlin in 1843, the article said. The Copelands brought their eight children along including their eldest and most famous son, John A. Copeland Jr., who studied at Oberlin College and was an active member of the Oberlin Anti-Slavery Society, the article said. The younger Copeland ultimately was one of three Oberlinians who took part in John Brown’s suicidal raid at Harpers Ferry in October 1859 in what is now West Virginia. He was hanged for his part in the abolitionist attack in December of that same year, the article said. Pilacky said the conservancy spoke with descendants of the Copeland family about the restoration. “They were just thrilled that we had planted a prairie on the property, because I understand the family really loved flowers,” she said. “There is a strong interest in this piece of land, both for conservation reasons, and for historical reasons, and that fact helped draw in a number of Oberlin groups who are going to take part in the planting of the trees at that property,” Jablonski said.

KEITH REYNOLDS — THE MORNING JOURNAL This site on Hamilton Street in Oberlin will be planted with trees and bushes April 28 by the Black River Audubon Society through a $2,900 grant.