Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News

The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund

Volume 8, Number 5 • September-October 2000

Ohio Update

Grassroots Action: Case Study of Wetlands at Risk

Sheldon Marsh, a 463-acre state nature preserve in Northwest Ohio along the Sandusky Bay region of Lake Erie, is one of the last Ohio remnants of a forest-marsh-lake ecosystem. From old field and hardwood forest, to woodland swamp and cattail marsh, to barrier sand beach and open lake, it provides important habitats for a host of plants and animals. Organisms as diverse as Cardinal Flowers, Blanding’s Turtles, and Common Terns all find refuge there.

The Sheldon Marsh ecosystem has been put at risk in the last two months. Mr. Bob Barnes, owner of Barnes Nursery, applied for a Nationwide Permit (NWP 27) in June under the guise of building a waterfowl impoundment pond and nesting islands. The next day, the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) issued the permit for construction in waters adjacent to Sheldon Marsh. (NWP 27 was designed to allow restoration of wetlands, but not in pristine wetlands and not conversion of existing wetlands to another aquatic use.) Construction created what can be viewed as an “irrigation canal” to bring water in from Lake Erie for the purpose of watering Barnes Nursery stock (approximately 300,000+ gallons/day). The dredging has resulted in a channel 50 feet wide and resultant dike about 1/4 mile in length along the western edge of Sheldon Marsh.

Several points might be made about the process of granting this permit by the Corps:

Sheldon Marsh is classified as a Category 3 wetland (pristine, nondegraded) and as such cannot be impacted by a NWP 27 permit (how can you reconstruct or restore this quality of wetland?).
Besides the above point, building a waterfowl impoundment pond or nesting islands is not permitted in Category 3 wetlands under NWP 27.
The application for the permit was not reviewed by Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA), or any local agencies such as the Erie County flood control supervisor.

In late July, Mr. Barnes was ordered to stop all excavation and a meeting was held where the Corps, OEPA and ODNR studied the situation. Recently, when officials from the three agencies visited the unfinished irrigation channel-dike project, they found the work completed did not comply with the plans on the permit application. The Corps decided it had mistakenly granted a nationwide permit to Mr. Barnes, who applied on behalf of a group known as CCCMB (landowners adjacent to Sheldon Marsh) to dig through the pristine state-owned wetlands.

In any case the project has now been temporarily interrupted. In order to continue, Mr. Barnes must apply to the Corps for an individual permit (which is more restrictive and allows for public scrutiny). The question remains as to what should be required of Mr. Barnes to correct the damage done. The Corps should follow through with a permit compliance investigation, and require that the area be restored to its original state immediately. It is important to have this done as soon as possible, since damage is being caused to this vital Category 3 wetland by the presence of the huge dike dredged up when a channel was created. Sediments are entering the marsh and the natural flow of waters from the mainland are blocked. It is through the dedicated efforts of friends of Sheldon Marsh that pressure is being brought to bear on public agencies to correct the damage done and stop the threat of further damage.

Visit the Sheldon Marsh website at www.schaffer.cc/sheldonsmarsh/sheldonsmarsh.html for more information on a wetland at risk and the grassroots efforts to prevent its destruction.

The Preservation of 1400 Acre Edison Woods to be Decided by Erie County Voters in November

by Friends of Wetlands

Edison Woods, one of the largest forests on the Ohio Lake Plain, is presently owned by FirstEnergy, the regional utility company in Akron, Ohio and currently used by Erie MetroParks. FirstEnergy will dispose of the property shortly. In the general election on November 7, Erie County voters will vote whether or not to authorize the Erie MetroParks’ acquisition of the 1400 acre property through a very small (0.4 mil) levy. This would cost the owner of a property valued for tax purposes at $100,000 less than $12.50, about one dollar a month in taxes per $100,000 in taxable value. The levy would run for a period of twenty years.

FirstEnergy has agreed to sell the site to the MetroParks for its appraised value of $4.5 million. Recognizing the special characteristics of the Edison Woods site, the State of Ohio has committed $750,000 of State Capital Improvements funds to partner with the citizens of Erie County on this specific project.

This is the only chance the park district will have to acquire this last great forest tract. No other available similarly sized tract of forest exists in northern Ohio. Park plans for this site include a large sledding hill, ice skating, hiking trails, a high hill scenic lookout from which one can see Lake Erie and Cedar Point, as well as other low-impact citizen use opportunities.

For more information please contact the Friends of Edison Woods at (419) 625-7136.