By Leatherwood Creek
A PERSONAL AND NATURAL HISTORY ALONG A SMALL CREEK IN THE OHIO HILL COUNTRY
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“….The specific area along Leatherwood Creek that I focus on is quite small but is one with which I am intimately familiar. It is an area within a radius of about only one mile from where I was born and raised and that I returned to visit during a period of over seventy years. I discovered later, the habitat along Leatherwood Creek supported many diverse forms of life once typical of the Ohio hill country. To help accomplish both objectives I also synthesized scientific information I discovered in many and sometimes difficult-to-find scientific reports, journals, and old out-of-print books. It has been said that before one can appreciate, cherish and protect a place, one first has to be aware and informed about it. Although substantial scientific information was available in journals, little had previously been written for the general reader about the natural history of this region. Many who have lived in this locale and are still living there probably were and still are unaware of the natural history and diversity of their surroundings. I therefore hope to inform people about some of the myriad plants and animals living in just one small area of only one of the many valleys in rural southeastern Ohio….Although some changes were natural and occurred before humans had an impact on the area, others were historic and human-caused. However, I particularly focus on changes I observed during my life, a seventy-plus-year period beginning in the late 1940s through the 1950s and into the late 2010s. It is said that the best ecological histories are done at the local level where they are the most visible. Although I left the area after graduating from high school, I returned frequently, then annually, then twice annually, to visit my sister who lived nearby and my parents who continued to live in the same house in which I was born. My father was also born in this house and both he and his father – my grandfather – died in it.…On each return visit to my place of birth in Ohio, I come to realize how the landscape, plants and wild creatures there had changed over time since my youth. As I walked along the bank of Leatherwood Creek, waded through the water of the nearby marsh and oxbows, revisited the small streams, and sat under oak trees in the fall watching squirrels feed, I thought of the many changes that had occurred in such a brief period. As a boy I took all of these natural surroundings for granted, and assumed that they would remain unchanged forever… ” (Dr. Theodore N. Bailey)
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About the Book
This book is one man’s reflection on his observations of the ecology of a small creek near his childhood home in southeast Ohio. As a wildlife biologist, Theodore N. Bailey had extensive knowledge of the flora and fauna that flourished at Leatherwood Creek. His meticulous research into the biological, cultural, and historical aspects of this area provides a wealth of information. At the beginning of each chapter, the author offers personal reflections of the creek from his memories growing up in southeastern Ohio in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. At the end of each chapter, he explores how the region has changed over the years. Backed with scientific evidence, the author’s thoughtful insights will inspire Ohio residents and others throughout the world to cultivate a deeper appreciation for the great diversity of life that is all around us, and a greater desire to take the time to observe and protect our natural world.
About the Author
Theodore N. Bailey, Ph.D. was born in his grandfather’s house at the edge of a small coal mining town in the hills of southeastern Ohio. The rural landscape of his boyhood home later influenced his decision to become a wildlife biologist and a conservationist. He attended a one-room school, enlisted in the U. S. Air Force, served three years overseas, earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from Ohio State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Idaho. He majored in zoology and was a fishery biologist, but then eventually began some of the earliest research on then little-investigated species: striped skunks, bobcats, wolverines, and threatened African leopards. He is also the author of The African Leopard: Ecology and Behavior of a Solitary Felid (1993). He later headed the biology division on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska for twenty-one years before his retirement. His reflection on the natural ecology of Leatherwood Creek has been enhanced with the inclusion of his wildlife and nature photography. He died of cancer in January 2021, leaving the publication of this book in his final will.