Ritchie Cemetery Project

The Place

From the outset of the project, we have been interested in the cemetery's physical attributes, its environmental setting, and the plant, animal, and fungal species it supports.

To our knowledge, the cemetery has never been cultivated or landscaped (other than some memorial plantings), so many native species are still found there. Part of our effort has been to document them.

Beyond environmental characteristics, also of interest are geographical representations, land issues, and remnants of human intervention, such as grave and plot markers, evidence of a past building structure, a former road, and memorial plantings.

Upcoming posts will address topics related to:

natural history
human alterations to the site
land and geography
physical projects, such as work days to control the spread of invasive honeysuckle

Location

Trees & Shrubs

Wildflowers & Weeds

Fungi & Lichens

Animals

Check Out Our Photo Galleries!

The galleries are an introduction to the many life forms to be found at Ritchie Cemetery. The species pictured, however, are not close to being a complete representation. We hope to add more galleries in the Summer of 2021 to include species groups not yet represented, such as grasses, grass-like plants, vines, and mosses.

Ritchie Projects at Nature Websites

iNaturalist

Nature-loving people throughout the world use the iNaturalist digital platform to record and identify their biological observations.

A Ritchie project has been established at iNaturalist. Any observation made from the Ritchie Cemetery location to the iNaturalist site is added to the project automatically.

Take a look at the iNaturalist Ritchie Cemetery Project.

eBird

eBird is the world's largest birding community. The cemetery is a designated Shawnee County hotspot on eBird.

All bird sightings made via eBird are recorded on its Ritchie Cemetery page.