The Ohio Prairie Story

Ohio is generally regarded as a wooded state, originally with forests stretching from border to border. But, in fact, Ohio had several very large areas of tallgrass prairie, equivalent to those in Illinois and Iowa. In pre-settlement times, about 4% of Ohio was prairie. In this presentation, with colorful photos, Ohio prairie expert John Blakeman will tell the remarkable biological story of these unique ecosystems, telling their ecological history and biological components.

John Blakeman is a retired biology instructor with 30-years science teaching experience at Perkins Schools near Sandusky, and is an experienced Ohio prairie researcher. John planted one of Ohio’s first prairie restorations in Erie County in 1973 at Firelands College BGSU at Huron, using native prairie seeds collected from local prairie remnants and isolated plants in ditches and hedgerows.

He helped form the Ohio Prairie Association and served as its president. He has presented papers at both state and national prairie conferences and is regarded as an expert in the history of Ohio’s tallgrass prairies. As proprietor of Meadow Environments LLC, he professionally designs, installs, and maintains prairie restorations and landscapes at park, educational, and private sites, including Erie MetroParks facilities, the COSI museum in Columbus, and at commercial sites across Ohio. At NASA’s Plum Brook Station he is restoring up to 3000 acres of the original Firelands Prairie.