Preserves on Kelleys Island

• Scheele Preserve, 27.7 acres, Monagan Road
• Coleman Preserve, 15.65 acres, Bookerman Road
• The Glade, 13.4 acres, Bookerman Road
• Woodford Woods, 24.83 acres, Woodford Road
• Long Point Preserve, 21.5 acres, Monagan Road
• Sweet Valley Preserve, 17.5 acres, Titus Road

Significance

"It's a completely different world here ... because of the limestone," remarks Natural Areas Coordinator Jim Bissell. Indeed, limestone is the reason that Kelleys Island exists at all.

When glaciers carved out the Lake Erie basin 12,000 years ago, limestone deposits in the western basin eroded much more slowly than the softer shales to the east. The western end of Lake Erie is shallower, and islands of limestone protrude above the surface in places. The limestone bedrock of Kelleys Island generates a thin, acidic soil much different from the heavy deposits of clay that cover much of northern Ohio. In turn, the island soil supports its own kinds of plant and insect life.

Hackberry trees are the commonest on the island, though they occur in only two locations in Cuyahoga County. Thickets of hackberry and prickly ash host the caterpillar of a particular invertebrate, the snout butterfly, which is rarely seen in the Cleveland area. Giant swallowtails, too, are seen in great abundance at Kelleys Island. They feed on plants of the citrus family, of which there are only two native members in Ohio.

Prickly ash and wafer ash are both common on the island. Museum preserves on the island are an important banding site for monarchs, and several fields are mowed to maintain butterfly habitat.

Long Point is home to the Federally-Endangered Lake Erie water snake. The Lake Erie water snake (Nerodia sipedon insularum) is one of the rarest reptiles in the midwest. The Long Point water snake population, at 100, may comprise as much as five to ten percent of the estimated surviving global population. Current estimates of the adult population range between 1,000 to 2,000 individuals. This rare snake is confined to the western Lake Erie islands and is found nowhere else in the world.

Visitors scrabbling on rocks along the water's edge may notice stones with long, semicircular grooves made by glaciers. The most spectacular glacial grooves can be seen at Kelleys Island State Park, which makes up about a quarter of the 2,800-acre island. The park once was a part of the Museum's holdings on the island. In 1955, a major lime company donated the land with the understanding that it would be purchased from the Museum by the State of Ohio as soon as funds were secured. The purchase was completed the next year, and the Museum retained some isolated tracts of land that became its very first natural areas.

Directions to Kelleys Island Ferry

Follow OH Route 2 west of Cleveland to Route 269 north. Proceed north on Route 269 to Rt. 163 east. Follow Route 163 east into Marblehead. The Kelleys Island Ferry Boat Line is located at 510 W. Main Street (across from the police department and fire station.)