FLORA
Looking north on Monmouth St. from Third St., Newport, in April 1913.
resulting floodwaters kept building until April 1, when they crested at 69.9 feet, 7.7 feet higher than the record reached in January. In Campbell Co., Newport once again was marooned, with 90 city blocks under water and 12,000 people homeless. In Kenton Co., the city of Bromley was half submerged and Ludlow was described as marooned. Covington was able to send relief help to Newport, Bromley, and Ludlow. In a contemporary account recording business and personal losses from these floods, the South Covington & Cincinnati State Rye Company stated its loss as “Enormous. Can’t estimate.” The losses in Newport alone amounted to $200,000. The March flooding left people cut off from food and coal supplies; communities were subjected to grave health concerns and looting, as well as dangers caused by wildlife (for example, snakes sought refuge in the same places where people went); and an unknown number of people died from drowning, exposure, or disease. While the Ohio and Licking Rivers ravaged Northern Kentucky, the Great Miami River devastated much of the Dayton, Ohio, area, killing 454 people and leaving 40,000 homeless. The state of Indiana also suffered a heavy loss of life due to this same period of flooding. The floods of 1913 made the all-time “Top Disasters: Floods and Tsunamis” list with a total of 732 people killed. In the aftermath of these floods, there was a renewed outcry, from President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) and many others, for a congressionally funded flood-control program in the region. In response the Flood Control Act of 1936 was finally passed by the U.S. Congress in June 22, 1936, but it came too late to help prevent the devastating flood of 1937 that occurred in the Ohio River Valley when once again the Ohio River and its tributaries overflowed their banks. “Bromley Is Nearly Half Submerged,” KP, January 29, 1913, 6. Dick, David, and Eulalie C. Dick. Rivers of Kentucky. North Middleton, Ky.: Plum Lick, 2001. “The Flood in Newport,” KP, January 31, 1913, 2. “Flood Waters Have Invaded Newport,” KP, January 11, 1913, 1.
“Ludlow Marooned; Fights the Waters,” KP, January 29, 1913, 6. “North Kentucky Suffers Worse Than in 1884 Flood,” KP, January 31, 1913, 1. “Sixty Blocks under Water in Newport,” KP, January 28, 1913, 1. “With Cincinnati Cut Off by Flood, Key to Vast Territory Is Lost,” KP, April 2, 1913, 1.
Blanche Gaynor
FLORA. At the time of the European exploration and settlement of Northern Kentucky, the landscape in this region was primarily covered with closed forests, but pockets of open forests, glades, and prairies were also present. Geographically, the area is about evenly divided between the Outer Bluegrass (OBg) and Eden Shale Belt (ESB) subregions of the Bluegrass region (see Eden Shale Farm). Parts of the OBg experienced Pleistocene glaciation, especially deposits of outwash, and these influenced topographic, geologic, and edaphic diversity, which in turn caused biological diversity. Today’s highly modified landscape is the result of more than 200 years of land-use changes including clearing of forests for agriculture (crops and livestock raising), urbanization and suburban sprawl, and the building of roads and highways. Remnants of original vegetation, however, provide information about the region’s native flora. Closed forests are found on uplands and lowlands. Upland forest associations include Mixed Mesophytic, similar to those in Eastern Kentucky but without hemlock. These are most prominent in dissected areas of Kansan glacial outwash. The dominant trees are sugar maple (Acer saccharum), basswood (Tilia americana), beech (Fagus grandifolia), white ash (Fraxinus americana), yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), and red oak (Quercus rubra); locally, yellow buckeye (Aesculus octandra) is found. These forests have a rich herbaceous flora reflecting microenvironmental and microclimatic influences. Beech and beech-maple forests are now rare but formerly occupied the upland flats where loess deposits and Rossmoyne (glacial) soils predomi-
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nate. Newport Central Catholic High School in Newport was constructed atop a hill on a loess deposit in the mid-1950s. Oak-ash-maple forests are found on slopes where glacial deposits have been eroded. Oak-hickory forests are most prominent on the ridges and V-shaped valleys of the ESB. These forests are dominated by white (Quercus alba) and red (Q. rubra) oaks and by hickories, shagbarks (Carya ovata), and pignuts (C. glabra). Sugar maple is now the subcanopy dominant. Two types of forest are found in the lowlands, on the floodplains of the Ohio and Licking rivers and their leading tributaries. Typical floodplain forests are characterized by various combinations of silver maples (Acer saccharinum), cottonwoods (Populus deltoids), box elders (A. negundo), green ashes (Fraxinus pennsylvanicum), and willows (Salix spp.). Depression forests along the Ohio River are uncommon. Their dominants are pin oak (Q. palustris), red maple (A. rubrum), green ash, American elm (Ulmus americana), and swamp white oak (Q. bicolor). The herbs in this association are adapted to hydric conditions. Open forests include the blue ash–oak savanna–woodland in the vicinity of Washington and Mayslick, Mason Co. These forests were composed of wide-spaced open-grown trees that were found on rich soils and rolling topography. Blue ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata), bur oak (Q. macrocarpa), and chinquapin oak (Q. muehlenbergii) characterized these communities. Glades are treeless or almost treeless areas where limestone or dolomitic bedrock is at or near the surface. They may be surrounded by trees, usually red cedar (Juniperus virginiana). The flora consists mainly of herbaceous plants. Glades are found in the vicinity of the Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park. Prairies in Northern Kentucky are exceedingly rare, but a few have been found on exposed glacial outcrops in Boone Co. Grasses including little bluestem (Schizacrium scoparium), Indian grass (Sorgastrum nutans), and side-oats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) are common associates along with a number of other herbs. Across the region, flora is rich and diverse, reflecting both habitat diversity and disturbance. Two federally listed plants, Short’s goldenrod (Solidago shortii) and running buffalo clover (Trifolium stolonifera), are known to occur in Northern Kentucky. Other species of special interest include ginseng (Panax quinquefolia), synandra (Synandra hispidula), goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), Great Plain’s ladies’ tresses (Spiranthes manicamporum), and side-oats grama. Throughout much of the area, nonnative plants (exotics) have become established and pose problems to native plants and communities. The two species that appear to be the most difficult to eradicate are Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) and false garlic mustard (Allairia petiolata). Baskin, J. M., and C. C. Baskin. “A Floristic Study of a Cedar Glade in Blue Licks Battlefield State Park, Kentucky.” Castanea 50, no. 9 (1985): 9–25.