Fun adventure today as we found the most famous sycamore tree in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It's 7 feet in diameter and completely hollow, so you can hide inside it like a cool, dark cave, but it still has three living branches.

Looking forward to speaking and listening at BW's Ideas Summit all day March 21! It's a showcase of 24 short, powerful presentations by BW faculty on all kinds of ideas, a way to experience the intellectual energy of BW in one place! Free and open to the public. www.bw.edu/events/2026/...

Looking forward to the Ecological Society of America-- Great Lakes chapter meeting April 10-12 at Cleveland State University! Hope you can join us! esa.org/greatlakes/c...

My @baldwinwallace.bsky.social Ecology students helped plant hundreds of trees today with Cleveland Museum of Natural History. We were happy to be part of the amazing restoration of Mentor Marsh. Everyone enjoyed dibbling!

[email protected]'s ginkgo trees lost all their leaves in one day, leaving a gold carpet.

It has been a privilege to mentor Skyanne as she grows into a scientist!

Yep that's my grad school buddy who has explained everything with his new book!

So proud of my lab's first paper with the first author a @baldwinwallace.bsky.social undergraduate. Another fruitful collaboration with Cleveland Metroparks, informing forest conservation in northeast Ohio. Congrats Skyanne! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I really hate being captain science buzzkill. "That science-y thing you're all talking about and excited about? Actually it's not true. But please still care about science!" Ugh. It's no fun. But it's not true! And it matters that it's not true! Someone should say so!

A friend gave me some buckeyes, the lovely peanut butter and chocolate candy. Ohio buckeye is the most toxic tree in our flora, with potentially lethal doses in all plant parts. There is some irony that the candy is delicious but the actual nut can kill you, and that the Ohio state tree is toxic.

A global analysis of altered species compositions and climate change reveals the extent to which ecosystems, including in protected areas and biodiversity hotspots, are exposed to novel conditions due to anthropogenic forces rdcu.be/edTpA

The link between war, fire, and climate explored in the Guardian today. #envhist #envhum #wildfire www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

Now in print: Observations of an incursion of katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) + heavy seedling recruitment during COVID-related reductions in campus landscape maintenance. If u have a bunch of mature trees, heads up. #trees #invasive #undergradresearch castaneajournal.com/article/scie...

Ecologists seek to understand how species distributions relate to environmental factors, but often these relationships have been radically human-altered. This new paper by Flinn et al. uses historical data & SDMs to understand the presettlement distributions of forest trees. doi.org/10.1111/jvs....

Ecologists seek to understand how species distributions relate to environmental factors, but often relationships are radically human-altered. Our new @jvegsci.bsky.social paper uses historical data in niche models to understand presettlement distributions of forest trees. 🧪🌿🌎 doi.org/10.1111/jvs....

Spread the word... All 1938 aerial photos of Cuyahoga County, Ohio are now freely available to everyone in this digital archive: libguides.bw.edu/c.php?g=1379... 🌿🌎🧪

Imagine our profession was built so that you could advance your career without moving all the time. Isn't this a huge piece of the equity and access problem? Yes, it is.

Our new analysis of land use change in Cuyahoga County, home of Cleveland, Ohio, published today in Urban Ecosystems. We trace how urbanization has impacted our native forests over the past 220 years, providing context for current growth. Highlights in thread: 🌿🧪🌎

There's a deep sense of sadness and loneliness seeing this record shattering graph. November 17, 2023 was the first day in recorded history when the earth's surface was a whole 2°C hotter than pre-industrial times. Yet, there's barely any chatter about this staggering breach.

@danirabaiotti.bsky.social Hi Dani, may I be added to the What's Science contributor list? Thanks!

Spotted my first lanternfly, at Cleveland Metroparks' Lakefront Nature Preserve, which is a peninsula in Lake Erie. This invasive crop pest recently arrived in northeast Ohio and lives primarily on tree of heaven. How did she get here? 🌿🌎

How lucky that my birthday coincides with the persimmon harvest! I'm making persimmon pudding with fruit I gathered from this native tree. Find a persimmon tree if you can... yes, they're seedy and squishy, but the flavor is worth it and like nothing else. 🌿

New here, so an introduction: I'm excited to be here and connect with fellow scientists & naturalists! 🌿🌎🧪 I am a plant ecologist using historical ecology to understand how ecological communities have changed over the past ~300 years or so in my home landscape of northeast Ohio, around Cleveland.

I experienced the katsura smell for the first time! The yellowing leaves smell fruity, malty, caramelly... like cotton candy, apple cake or a fruity beer. As they decay, they release maltol. Beautiful, old weeping specimen @ Secrest Arboretum. 🌿

@friel.bsky.social Hi John! Could you add me to the naturalists feed? Thanks!

Katsura tree leaves in fall smell like caramelized sugar. Who has experienced this and how would you describe it?