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Survey's: Into the Millennium
by Brian J. Armitage, Ph.D.
Ohio Biological Survey
Vol 8, No. 1, February 2000

Surveys and inventories in the Ohio Country began with the first settlers over 10,000 years ago. They were looking for organisms that served basic needs for survival.

The European colonization of the Ohio Country fostered the next level of inquiry into our biota. During the 19th century, the inventory effort shifted markedly from serving survival needs to serving a more academic and popular curiosity.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Ohio Biological Survey was created to provide a more systematic inventory of the biota in this state. It failed, in part. Without sufficient funding, and dependent on the personal proclivities and interests of individuals (who paid most, if not all, of their own expenses), efforts to inventory the state were similar to travelers who never leave the interstate highway system. Only recently, with the efforts of The Ohio Lepidopterists, the Ohio odonate workers (now the Ohio Odonata Society), and work done by various state agencies, have we approached the ideal. A good first effort, but just a start, with the emphasis on species.

During the latter half of the 20th century, we began to realize that simply doing surveys and inventories was not enough. Identification of communities and critical habitats, and their preservation, became foci of funding and activity. The Ohio Division of Natural Areas and Preserves, the Ohio Division of Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, the Audubon Society, land trusts, individuals, and other entities were important players in this effort. We need both approaches today in Ohio: the species approach and the community/critical habitat approach.

Now, as we enter the 21st century, we need to inventory our state's biota not only for the academic interest, but also for management, regulatory, commercial, aesthetic, and a host of other perfectly good reasons. As we acknowledge and act on our responsibilities as natural resource stewards, it is incumbent on us to have some greater knowledge of that with which we share the Ohio landscape.

There are several prerequisites:

1. Trained personnel are needed to conduct the inventories. In Ohio, we have more human resources than most states. The Ohio Biological Survey, with its consortium structure, and other organizations around the state, form a unique cadre capable of executing such an effort. However, on a national or international scale, field taxonomists are in short supply, and the supply is aging. There needs to be a sustained training program to produce more field taxonomists. This is not an area that requires a Ph.D., but rather dedication, experience, and opportunity.

2. Sufficient funding is required, realizing that there will never be enough money or time to do everything in short order.

3. Priorities need to be set about what groups or communities to look at first. What we as humans perceive as important groups of organisms, in many cases are not important at all from a medicine-source, commercial, or ecosystem function point of view. Ironically, taxa which at best elicit comments like "Oh, isn't that interesting?" or "It gives me the creeps" will, as history demonstrates repeatedly, be of greatest value to Homo sapiens.

4. A long term commitment is required. The initial effort to identify both species and communities / critical habitats needs to be followed by a monitoring effort to ensure that we are not simply creating natural historical footnotes.

In the near future, opportunities to affect statewide inventories for species and communities/critical habitats, working in full compliance with and acknowledgment of personal and corporate property rights, are in the offing. In order to realize full benefit from these opportunities, some must be taught, some must come out of retirement, some must rearrange their priorities, some must expand their horizons, some must get off the couch, some must assume leadership, and all must cooperate and communicate. If we fail, we fail ourselves and every species' future.
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© 2000 Ohio Biological Survey.