Stream, Shaker Lakes, in Winter

In Albums: nature snow Cleveland forest

Mar 12th, 2003, by Alex Zorach

This photo shows a stream flowing through forest, in the Shaker Lakes Parkland, in Shaker Heights, Ohio, in the Cleveland metro area. This stream flows into the Shaker Lakes. The stream is clearly flowing but shows some ice around the edge, and the ground is snow-covered, reflecting the fact that the temperatures are staying rather close to the freezing point, spending some time both above and below freezing. This is typical of the weather in Cleveland and much of Northeast Ohio during most of the winter.

Note the diversity of the diameters of the trees in this picture. There are a wide range of ages and sizes of trees, ranging from older trees to young saplings and all the way in between. This is a sign of relatively organic development of the forest in this area. When the trees in a forest are all close to each other in age, it is usually a sign of some sort of human intervention (such as clear-cutting followed by planting). Even following a natural disturbance, there will usually be more diversity of ages and sizes of trees as a forest regrows, much like this one.