Eagle Creek Nature Preserve

This preserve encompasses a variety of communities supporting a diversity of flora and fauna typical of northeastern Ohio. Eagle Creek meanders through a wide floodplain dotted with beaver dams, marshlands, small bogs and button bush swamps. The north-facing slopes are forested by beeches and maples; white oak woodlands are common on the drier, south-facing slopes. There are more than 100 species of woody plants including uncommon trees, such as cucumber magnolia and yellow birch, as well as 70 species of spring wildflowers. More than 20 species of ferns have been cataloged in the preserve, including ostrich ferns nearly five feet tall. The sphagnum bog shelters such northern rarities as large cranberry, winterberry holly, cotton sedge and insect-eating plants including round-leaved sundew and northern pitcher-plant.