The following was written by Grace Nafziger, Natural Areas Intern
It’s that time of year again for Bernheim’s Mass Crop Survey. The Mass Crop Survey is a great way for Bernheim to monitor the trees in the forest that create “crops” and therefore estimate the overall health of the wildlife and plants that make up the forest ecosystem. The group of trees monitored includes oaks, paw paws, persimmons, and any other fruit or nut producing tree. Monitoring these trees helps Bernheim estimate the amount of crop being produced every year. This year, the trees have dropped a great amount of fruit and nuts which means that the Mass Crop Production is high. A good Mass Crop Production indicates that the trees around Bernheim are healthy which is also a strong indication that our wildlife is healthly because of the avaialble food.