Congratulations to team Loose Moose
from Abercrombie & Fitch, the 2011 Bison Bowl Champs. Thanks to everyone for
coming out and playing on June 11th at Scioto Audubon Metro Park!
Click for geese in snow flight
Bison Reintroduction Project
The Bison are finally here! Six bison, all females between ages two and eight, arrived at their new home on February 4, 2011. They made the journey to their new home in trucks, from The Wilds in Cumberland, Ohio.
The bison will occupy two pastures, one of 30 acres and another of 16 acres, and will move between the two as needed. One pasture is planted with native prairie grasses such as big and little blue stem and Indian Grass. The second pasture is planted mostly with fescue. Grazing is the primary source of nutrition for bison. Metro Parks will assess the way the pastures respond to grazing and how well the animals are adapting to their new life here, before deciding when the time is right to bring in a male bison to live with them. This could be as soon as later this spring.
Metro Parks will utilize OSU’s Large Animal Services, affiliated with The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, to look after the animals’ health. The two bison pastures are enclosed by a double fence. A woven and electrified inner fence, to keep the bison safely within their enclosure, and an outer wooden fence, the barrier for public visitors.
The Darby Creek Greenway Trail intersects the two enclosed bison pastures. Visitors can take the 0.6-mile walk north to the bison pastures from the Cedar Ridge area (the main park entrance), or access the Darby Creek Greenway Trail from a small parking lot at the junction of Darby Creek Drive and Kuhlwein Road, and walk the 1.5-mile distance south to the bison pastures. Join us and support this unique project.
Bluebirds are a familiar bird in Ohio - but their traditional habitats have too often been displaced by urban development. We'll be partnering with Metro Parks in the maintenance of their existing several hundred bluebird boxes and we'll be creating partnerships with other organizations and the public to build, install, and maintain additional boxes throughout the Metro Parks open spaces. Join us and support this ongoing project while enjoying the off-the-trail areas of Metro Parks.
The Scioto Audubon Metro Park, adjacent to downtown Columbus, offers a unique river location to leverage the Ohio Department of Natural Resources ongoing program to expand the nesting opportunities for the migratory osprey. We'll be partnering with governmental and private industry entities to explore if the site is appropriate and then to coordinate the funding and construction of one or more elevated platforms - in hope that nesting osprey will be attracted by early spring 2011. Join us and support this project to try to attract the osprey to the Greenlawn Dam area on the Scioto River.
