Are there wetlands in ohio

Another factor driving this issue is increased agricultural activity along the watershed, and deterioration of soil quality. With worsening soil health due to land over usage, less nutrients are able to be retained in the soil, causing farmers to apply more fertilizer each year. These nutrients are being runoff during heavy rain events into storm sewers. Without these natural filters, these nutrients are going directly into the lake and contributing to harmful algae bloom growth.

More policy is being passed in Ohio, requiring that if a wetland must be removed for building purposes, another wetland must be built somewhere else to help stop the degradation of wetlands throughout the state. Other sources of wetland remediation are being carried out through the Ohio EPA, with standards of preserving and protecting aquatic resources, as well as restoring ecological integrity, natural structure, and natural function.

Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. What are wetlands and how do we define them? Figure 1: An example of a wetland. What can be done to fix this? It was originally seen at what is now Wiregrass Lake Metropark. Traveling that distance meant that it had successfully navigated through a predominantly suburban landscape. The Oak Openings is a 1,square-mile region in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan comprised of oak savanna and wet prairie—preferred habitat for the turtle.

Amy Holtshouse. In the case of Western Lake Erie Basin's wetlands and marshes, that number is estimated to be even higher. Through public funding programs like H2Ohio , the Conservancy and partners are better able to do just that. TNC played an essential role in getting H2Ohio off the ground and is now bringing it to life through on-the-ground scientific mapping and targeted wetland restoration projects.

As was evidenced with the Toledo-area water advisory of August , water quality is nothing to take for granted—especially in the Western Lake Erie Basin, a highly agricultural region where excess nutrients from fertilizer runoff and urban areas are contributing to toxic algal blooms.

Once over 10 miles long, Irwin Wet Prairie played a pivotal role in slowing down and naturally treating waters that carried nutrients to Lake Erie. It also provided vital habitat for wildlife such as songbirds, waterfowl, amphibians and reptiles. A largescale restoration project is underway by The Nature Conservancy and key partners to restore more of the historic Irwin Wet Prairie.

The acre "Sandhill Crane Wetlands" project aims to protect water quality and restore wildlife habitat by transforming the land back into a functioning wetland. It wants to be a wetland again and we are helping it do that. This project is part of our broader plan to restore thousands of additional acres of wetlands across the Western Lake Erie Basin.

What we learn here will help inform those other efforts. The project's name also reflects an optimism that the land will again support nesting and foraging habitat for sandhill cranes , which have not successfully nested in Ohio's Oak Openings region in over 70 years. Learn more about how climate change contributes to water quality issues in Lake Erie and other waters.

While wetlands were drained in the northeast part of the state as well, they were spared the mass scale of destruction experienced in the northwest. WRRSP is one of several programs the Conservancy relies on to implement much of its wetland protection work. Another is the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

In the last five years, the program has enabled the Conservancy and its partners to enhance and restore 3, acres of coastal marsh, manage more than 5, acres of invasives, and restore more than 3, acres of Oak Openings habitat. The valley is being transformed from one dominated by straightened ditches and abandoned agricultural fields, to streams teeming with life The valley is being transformed from one dominated by straightened ditches and abandoned agricultural fields, to streams teeming with life that meander through abundant wetlands and riparian forest.

With your help we can have a clean, healthy, thriving Ohio.