Kickel Preserve

Sheffield Township, Ashtabula County
120-acre conservation easement

The Kickel Preserve supports a large stand of hummock-hollow swamp forest. Canopy dominants include yellow birch-tupelo-red oak-American elm-silver maple-beech and black cherry. Vernal ponds are frequent found and wildflowers flourish throughout the preserve.

The fragipan soil type on the preserve accounts for the hummock-hollow topography. Fragipan soils have a silt barrier ten to fifteen inches below the surface so water perches on top of the silt. It causes tree roots to be very shallow. The shallow-rooted trees are frequently thrown over by windstorms. Where the pancake-shaped root mass pulls out, a shallow hollow forms and the hummocks result from the pile of soil that remains after the roots decompose. Over centuries, the hollows deepen and the hummocks enlarge as generations of trees continue the process. It is a unique community.