Monroe County Park District

10/28/2026

If someone lost their readers out by Piatt Park I'll have them at the park office. Last person I saw around here was UPS not sure if it's his or not thanks!

Update: They are not UPS's

10/28/2026

🐿️🌰 SQUIRRELS: NATURE’S LITTLE FOREST PLANTERS! 🌳🍂

Have you noticed squirrels racing through the woods, gathering acorns and nuts this fall? They’re doing much more than collecting a snack. They’re preparing for winter—and helping grow the forests of tomorrow!

🍁 Why do squirrels collect nuts?

Unlike some animals, squirrels don’t hibernate. They remain active throughout the winter, even when snow covers the ground and food becomes scarce. Fall is their opportunity to stock up on acorns, hickory nuts, and walnuts while they’re plentiful.

🌰 What do they do with all those nuts?

Squirrels practice something called scatter hoarding. Instead of storing everything in one place, they bury individual nuts in hundreds of hiding spots throughout the forest.

🧠 How do they remember where they buried them?

Squirrels have impressive spatial memories! They use landmarks, their sense of smell, and memory to relocate their hidden treasures—even beneath snow.

🌳 Here’s where things get interesting!

Squirrels don’t recover every nut they bury. Some are forgotten, others are abandoned, and many eventually sprout into new trees!

This makes squirrels important contributors to forest regeneration. By carrying and burying nuts away from their parent trees, they help spread the next generation of oaks, hickories, and other hardwoods.

🌿 So the next time you see a squirrel frantically digging in the leaves at Piatt Park, remember: That little animal isn’t just preparing for winter. It may be planting a tree that will tower over the forest a hundred years from now!

Nature has a remarkable way of planning for the future. 🌳❤️

🍂 Explore autumn with the Monroe County Park District!

10/18/2026

🍁 THE SECRET LIFE OF FALL AT PIATT PARK 🌳

Every autumn, the forests of Piatt Park put on a spectacular display of reds, oranges, yellows, and browns. But have you ever wondered why leaves change color, why they fall, or why some trees stay green all winter?

The answer is a fascinating story of survival, energy conservation, and nature’s remarkable adaptations!

☀️ LEAVES ARE NATURE’S SOLAR PANELS

Throughout spring and summer, leaves capture sunlight and use that energy to manufacture food through photosynthesis. Their green color comes from chlorophyll, the pigment that makes this possible.

But as autumn approaches and daylight decreases, trees begin preparing for winter. Maintaining thousands of leaves through freezing temperatures, reduced sunlight, and limited water availability would become costly.

So deciduous trees do something remarkable: They recover valuable nutrients from their leaves, store resources for spring, and essentially disconnect their solar panels!

🎨 WHY ALL THE BEAUTIFUL COLORS?

🍁 Yellow and Orange: These pigments were hiding inside the leaves all summer, masked by green chlorophyll. As the green disappears, their colors are revealed.

🍁 Red: Many trees actually manufacture new red pigments during autumn! These pigments may help protect leaves from excessive sunlight while valuable nutrients are recovered.

🍁 Brown: As the remaining pigments break down, brown compounds, including tannins, become more visible.

🌲 BUT WHAT ABOUT PIATT PARK’S HEMLOCKS?

While our maples, oaks, and hickories shed their leaves, the eastern hemlocks growing along the park’s beautiful gorge remain green.

Their small, waxy needles are adapted to conserve water and survive winter. Unlike deciduous hardwoods, hemlocks retain their solar panels for several years, taking advantage of favorable conditions to photosynthesize even during colder months.

And these hemlocks are especially important!

Ecologists consider eastern hemlock a foundation species because its year-round shade helps create the cool, moist conditions that support the gorge’s unique ecosystem.

The hemlocks aren’t simply living in this environment. They’re helping create it!

🌎 DIFFERENT CLIMATES, SIMILAR SURVIVAL STRATEGIES

Interestingly, trees don’t always lose their leaves because of cold weather.

In the tropical forests of Costa Rica, many trees shed their leaves during the dry season to conserve water. And some oak species in warmer climates remain evergreen, while our Ohio oaks generally lose their leaves each year.

Different environments, different adaptations, but the same goal: survive, conserve resources, and grow again.

Those beautiful fall colors aren’t simply nature decorating the landscape. They’re adaptation, conservation, and survival.

So the next time you walk beneath the colorful hardwoods or stand among the evergreen hemlocks of Piatt Park, take a moment to appreciate the remarkable nature all around you.

🍁 Experience the beauty, enjoy the wonder of fall at Piatt Park!

📍 Piatt Park | Monroe County, Ohio

10/13/2026

Here is some wonderful information from our friends at Soil and Water.

Recently we have received an uptick in calls about spotted lanternfly with this year showing a growth in their population in our area. We want to try and educate folks on how to limit their numbers in future years.

Feel free to stomp and squish as many as you can. Also look for egg masses on trees and buildings. You can scrape these egg masses off and let them soak in rubbing alcohol to destroy the eggs.

Spotted lanternflies' preferred tree is Ailanthus otherwise known as tree of heaven. Tree of heaven is another invasive from Asia that the lanternflies will gravitate to in large numbers.

If you think you have tree of heaven in your yard or on your property and you would like to know how to eradicate it, please give us a call at 740-472-5477. Do not go out and immediately cut tree of heaven. It will produce root suckers and you will only make the problem worse.

By treating tree of heaven you will not only be getting rid of spotted lanternfly habitat but you will also be helping with our forest health in the county by removing them. More native Oaks and less lanternflies is what we want to see in the future!

10/11/2026

What a lovely day we had together! Thank you so much to the volunteers, board members and staff and their families and especially the guests who made this day so special! We had coffee, conversation, snacks , donuts and yummy chili that Jennifer Childress made! So thank you to Justin Friday, Casey Bott, James Leland Peters, James Leland Peters for Judge, Tim Childress and Jennifer, Jonny Cunningham, Catelyn Turner, Tim Dierkes, Jodie Kelley, Nayt Seymour and JD Wiley for helping make this day so special! And thank you to everyone that took pictures and shared, prepare for the overload !
There were also a few unexpected photos of a visitor who must have smelled all the good food 🫈

10/09/2026

🍁 PIATT PARK FALL TOUR — SIDE-BY-SIDE ADVENTURE! 🍁
Nature has a seat for everyone. ❤️
Join the Monroe County Park District this Saturday, October 10, for a special guided side-by-side experience through the beautiful trails and scenery of Piatt Park.
This event is open to all ages, but is designed especially for our elderly community members, individuals with physical limitations, and anyone who may not otherwise be able to walk the trails on their own.
🚙 Guided side-by-side tours through Piatt Park
🍂 Enjoy the beauty of the fall colors
🌲 Experience areas of the park you may not normally be able to reach
🎤 Special guests will visit with our tour groups
❤️ A relaxed, enjoyable outdoor experience for everyone
📅 Saturday, October 10, 2026
⏰ 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
📍 Piatt Park — Monroe County Park District
For more information, contact Jodie at 740-472-1328.
Explore. Enjoy. Belong.
Come experience Piatt Park together! 🍁🌲🚙