1819: First survey

The first maps of Lodi Township were the original public land surveys done in the early to mid-19th century.

The survey of Lodi Township was started in 1815, but due to the difficult conditions some lines had to be re-run. The survey was thus completed in April 1819 by Joseph Wampler*. The survey plat map can be viewed at Seeking Michigan.  Here is the northwestern corner of the township from that survey.

What is more interesting is a the survey document that includes various descriptions of the land, available at the BLM site. In part, it describes the land along the interior section lines:

Section of original 1819 survey that shows land descriptions from our
part of Lodi Township.

Unfortunately, some of the first page is cut off, so some areas are missing. Here is the survey annotated with the survey with the relevant descriptions that are available:

The document also includes descriptions of the "bearing" or "witness" trees that marked the corners of each section; nearly all in this immediate area were white and bur oaks. We can surmise from this that our part of the township was wet prairie and open oak plains.

One of the earliest maps of the county was produced around 1842 and depicts features important to early settlers: the type of land and water features. Here we see that our portion of Lodi Township comprised of "Openings & Plains."

From "Map of Washtenaw County" circa 1842 by D. Houghton with  S.W.
Higgins and B. Hubbard. Archives of Michigan, Range 23, Unit 3, Shelf 5,
Oversize Box 35, Code 01017.

Similar openings occurred in Bridgewater Township, southwest of Lodi, and were described by Warren Miller, and early settler in the 1830s**:

"Where my father settled was called an oak opening. It was a sparsely timbered plain consisting of rich, sandy land, very productive at that time. Grass grew in great abundance all over these plains."

Researchers have taken all of the information included in these surveys, along with soil types, and other land descriptions to put together maps of pre-settlement vegetation. They are shown and discussed in the post, The land, pre-European settlement.

* A very interesting history of the orignal survey -- and its problems -- can be read in the January 1950 issue of Impressions, a publication of the Washtenaw County Historical Society (PDF here). The entire state is being re-surveyed; you can learn about local progress at the Washtenaw County Remonumentation Program web site and the Washtenaw County Road Commission.
**"Reminiscences of an  early Washtenaw settler: wolves, Indians in Bridgewater scary to boy," November 1988 Impressions, Washtenaw County Historical Society.

The land pre-European settlement

In a previous post, I showed the first survey maps from the early 1800s, indicating that the northwestern portion fo Lodi Township was comprised of swampy prairie, level plains, and openings. Working backwards from these historical accounts, and using soil maps and other ecological forensics, a detailed map of the best estimate of what type of vegetation/habitat occurred in Washtenaw County prior to European settlement (circa 1800) was created and is available here. [Update: this website has an interactive map that provides more search capabilties and detail!]

I've extracted the part of the county that includes the portions of Scio and Lodi townships that include Centennial Lane, highlighting our section 5 of Lodi.

Purple indicates wet prairie, beige is black oak barren, and pink (not in our part of the section) is oak-hickory forest.

Here is a more detailed view of the neighborhood from a map taken from the Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality GeoWebFace map. In this map, green is black oak barren, and pink is wet prairie. They seem to roughly coincide with the slight change in elevation, with the oak barrens on "high" ground of ~910 feet above see level, and the wet prairie areas along watercourses and low spots of 900 feet.

These maps were generated for the entire state -- an epic undertaking of detective work (learn more here). Still, they are "educated guesses" and despite the level of detail, paint with a fairly broad stroke. Obviously, not all natural habitats fit into nice pigeonholes. Below, I've listed some details on the two habitat types shown on the map for our section of Lodi Township, and added another closely related type that was likely to have been similar to what was here prior to European settlement.

Note a couple of commonalities: these ecosystems were all maintained by fires -- both natural and, perhaps more common, those set by Native Americans (here, primarily the Potawatomi). These habitats were also not characterized by dense forests or shrubby fields, but were largely open, with (often much) less than 60% canopy cover, little or no shrub understory, and grassy or wildlflower-dominated expanses. This made them very appealing to European settlers.

Wet Prairie: Native lowland grassland on level, saturated and/or seasonally inundated land, including floodplains and depressions. Soils primarily loam or silt loam (but also silty clay or clay) of neutral pH and high organic content.Water level fluctuations and fire help/ed maintain diversity and open conditions.

Dominant grasses include bluejoint grass and cordgrass, with sedges (Carex stricta and C. bebbii) often important subdominants. Other characteristic species included joe-pye-weed (Eupatorium maculatum), New England aster (Aster novae-angliae), boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum), marsh fern (Thelypteris palustris), and Virginia mountain mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum). Rare plants included rattlesnake-master (Eryngium yuccifolium, state threatened) and broad-leaved mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum), state threatened.


Oak barrens: A fire-dependent savanna type dominated by oaks, with between 5 and 60% canopy, with or without a shrub layer. A scattered overstory was dominated by black oak (Quercus velutina) and white oak (Q. alba).  Red maple (Acer rubrum), black cherry (Prunus serotina), big-toothed aspen (Populus grandidentata), quaking aspen (P. tremuloides), scarlet oak (Q. coccinea), and northern pin oak (Q. ellipsoidalis) were species found in the overstory and subcanopy. If shrubs were present, they included serviceberry or shadbush (Amelanchier spp.), American hazelnut (Corylus americana), wild plum (Prunus americana), and New Jersey tea (Ceanothus americanus).

Like other barrens and savanna ecosystems, the mostly grassy ground layer was composed of species associated with both prairie and forest communities. Common grasses and sedges were little bluestem (Andropogon scoparius), big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), and Pennsylvania sedge (Carex pensylvanica). Prevalent wildflowers included woodland sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus), wild bergamot or bee balm (Monarda fistulosa), and birdfoot violet (Viola pedata). Some rare plants were downy sunflower (Helianthus mollis, state threatened), Fire Pink (Silene virginica, state threatened) and Purple Prairie Clover (Dalea purpurea, presumed extirpated from Michigan).

Bur Oak Plains: Given the large number of very old bur oaks in this area, which are not listed as characteristic of the other types of oak plains/barrens ecosystems, I suspect this habitat type may have been a close fit to our area. This special habitat type is now considered gone from Michigan; it was heavily dependent on fire, and was characterized by fire-tolerant species.

Bur oak plains were savanna communities having between 10 and 30% canopy, with or without a shrub layer. Sometimes white oaks were co-dominants; these two species were the ones most frequently used as "bearing trees" to mark section corners in the first land survey done in 1819. The most common shrubs were fire-tolerant species such as American hazelnut (Corylus americana), New Jersey tea (Ceanothus americanus), and leadplant (Amorpha canescens, state special concern).

Prairie plants and grasses were more abundant in sunny areas and forest species in the shade. Common grass species included big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), little bluestem (Andropogon scoparius), and Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans).  Some of the more common plants were purple milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens, state special concern), prairie coreopsis (Coreopsis palmata, state threatened), round-headed bush clover (Lespedeza capitata), wild-bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), Virginia mountain mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum), and golden alexanders (Zizia aurea).


The Michigan Natural Features Inventory has assembled detailed descriptions of habitat types in Michigan. Links to PDFs of relevant habitat communities can be found on the Resources page.

A note on geology:
Plant communities are also extrapolated based on soils, which in turn are influenced by quaternary geology. Our neighborhood is underlain with glacial outwash sand and gravel, and postglacial alluvium. This is stratified layers of fine and coarse sand alternating with layers of gravel and heavier cobbles. These deposits were put down by the meltwater from glaciers. More details about the soils in our neighborhood is in this blog post.

The permeablilty and coarse nature of these materials means that groundwater quickly recharges. Most of the neighborhood is designated as a groundwater recharge area by the township.