Category: News

OWF is pleased to share the attached press release from The Ohio State University that announces our continued support of the Ohio Wetlands Foundation Fellowship. This fellowship, funded solely by Ohio Wetlands Foundation, supports graduate student research at the Olentangy River Wetlands Research Park (ORWRP) at The Ohio State University. The ORWRP is the only on campus wetlands research facility in North America and operates under the leadership of Dr. William Mitsch. In case you were not already aware, the wetlands at the ORWRP were designated in 2008 as a RAMSAR Wetland of International Importance – only the 24th such wetland in the US, 1st in Ohio and the 1st created wetland to be so honored. We are very proud of our efforts and excited to be a part of the wonderful success story at ORWRP!

Learn more about the ORWRP by visiting their website at http://swamp.osu.edu/

On December 1, 2009 the US EPA issued a new Construction Storm Water rule affecting all new construction sites with over 10 acres of disturbed area. The new rule requires all applicable construction sites to monitor storm water effluent for turbidity. The rule can be downloaded below. This 64 page document contains 62 pages of preamble, explanation, and justification for the rule. The actual rule appears on page 63.

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BP Toledo Refinery has donated $50,000 to the Pearson Metropark expansion project, pushing the capital fundraising campaign past the halfway point. Cash donations and pledges from numerous small businesses, local organizations and individuals, as well as in-kind services, now total nearly $350,000 of the $400,000 fundraising goal. Bay Area Credit Union and the Oregon City Federation of Teachers have each pledged $10,000 to the project.

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After observing Memorial Day, the unofficial beginning of summer, locals are embracing the concept of "staycation," looking to brown their skin, not blow their budgets.

North Ridgeville’s Sandy Ridge Reservation of the Lorain County Metro Parks is a 310-acre wetland and wildlife preserve and an accessible outlet for education, recreation and … read more >

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With Pearson Metropark’s 75th anniversary approaching, work is progressing with the Oregon park’s roughly $5 million northern expansion, where a log cabin built in 1866 is being outfitted with wavy glass windows and other details from the era.

The expansion also is doubling Pearson’s size, returning to wetlands about 300 acres last used as farmland. More than 100,000 trees and shrubs already have been planted on … read more >

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The name ‘Black Swamp’ conjures images of a boggy quagmire with slippery amphibians and murky waters littered with lily pads and algae. Yet Northwest Ohio is built on this natural resource — one of the region’s most important ones.

Keeping the swamp from vanishing in a rapidly expanding world of highways, shopping centers and residential zones can be a mucky duty. But the Black Swamp Conservancy is willing to wade through … read more >

Ohio has a rich history of business innovation and technological advancement. Ohio has long been a state that facilitates and promotes invention and innovation. Consequently, as the States economic landscape becomes increasingly global and diverse, our state government must respond to that diversity by crafting better methods for appropriately regulating entities that conduct business in the state.

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Trumbull Creek Wetlands Mitigation Bank
September 1, 2007

The purpose of a wetlands mitigation bank is clear: to create wetlands to compensate for similar areas that are being disrupted elsewhere by residential or commercial development, infrastructure construction or other uses. But if the purpose of a bank is clear, how best to create one is less so. As more information becomes available, the standards by which a successful wetlands restoration is judged are changing, making the … read more >

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Let’s look at two wetland projects. One, the Sandy Ridge Reservation in North Ridgeville, will serve as our gold standard. The other, at Lake Abram in southern Cuyahoga County, is a work in progress with high aspirations. Federal law requires wetlands used for public or private development to be replaced by wetlands in another area.

The prime beneficiary of this land-swap arrangement in Northeast Ohio is Sandy Ridge, one of the state’s finest birding destinations. In the 17 years since its 310 acres of farmland were restored to wetland, Sandy Ridge has become a vital stop for migrating shorebirds, waterfowl, waders and songbirds, and a host for nesting bald eagles, sandhill cranes, rails and woodpeckers.

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The Wetland Research Park was named in honor of the late Wilma H. Schiermeier, an Ohio State University alumnus who was concerned about clean air and water. Schiermeier dedicated in excess of $1.5 million through her estate to the complex to ensure the park’s continued research and vitality. Schiermeier, who passed away in 2004, was Hamilton County’s representative to the Ohio Farm Bureau and served as the board’s secretary from 1993-2003. She was posthumously awarded the Hamilton County Farm Bureau “Outstanding Service to Agriculture Award.” Vince Messerly, president of the Ohio Wetlands Foundation, said his organization recognizes William J. Mitsch, a professor of natural resources and environmental science at Ohio State and director of the Olentangy River Wetlands Research Park, as a national leader in wetland science and study.

Ohio’s most recently restored wetland, a 33-acre site at the Hebron State Fish Hatchery in Licking County, is the product of an unlikely alliance of seemingly opposed interests – the Ohio Home Builders Association, the Ohio Division of Wildlife and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – and a process called mitigation banking.

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