AA UUsseerr’’ss GGuuiiddee 1 The West Branch Watershed Of the two main branches of the Black River, the West Branch, at slightly more than 175 square miles, is not quite as large or as developed as the East Branch. The West Branch remains a predominantly rural watershed and is an important natural resource for the region, but the watershed does suffer environmental degradation, much of it coming from its agricultural land uses. The West Branch Watershed The West Branch watershed is your watershed; please help enhance and protect it. The Black River Watershed Coordinator and the Black River Remedial Action Plan Coordinating Committee developed this handbook in an effort to help you learn about the West Branch and its geology, history, wildlife and beauty. We hope this handbook will 2 help you better understand the watershed, become proud of its natural beauty and become excited about protecting it. At the end of this handbook, you will find ideas on how you, your neighbors and your community can help protect this valuable natural resource. "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not." Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." West Branch Facts Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) The West Branch watershed encompasses all or part of 16 townships in 4 counties. Watershed Size 175.4 square miles Streams 347 miles Average Stream Gradient 9.9 feet per mile Drainage Density 1.98 stream mile per square mile Roads 425 miles Railroad Lines 60 miles Average Imperviousness of the land 2.35% Precipitation 35 inches (rain) 42 inches (snow) A stream or river flows from one place to another. You can see it flow from your neighbor's property to your property or from your town to the next town or village. Whatever happens to a river in one place is carried downstream to the next place. Since very little of the water in the West Branch is spring fed, most of its stream flow arrives by way of rain or snowmelt. The streams are fed either directly from flow over the land (called runoff) or indirectly from one or more streams that join them. These joining streams are called tributaries. The system of smaller streams feeding larger ones is the basic concept of a watershed. 3 We all live in a watershed. We are always within a watershed. Watersheds are nature's flowing water boundaries. They collect the water in a particular area and transport it to another area. Watersheds include lakes, streams, rivers and wetlands. Most importantly, watersheds include the land area. You live, work and play in one watershed or another. Sometimes extreme rainfall amounts overwhelm a stream's capacity to carry water, but healthy streams have a naturally built-in release mechanism. The low flat areas adjacent to the streams that can handle the larger flows are called floodplains. In the floodplains, the force of the water slows, allowing sediments to settle out. The slower flows also create less erosion. Often, the floodplains have wetland areas associated with them. Wetlands are important floodplain features, because they can store excess water and filter debris, sediment and other pollutants from the runoff. In addition, wetlands create exceptional habitat refuges for birds, small mammals, amphibians, young fish and insects. The naturally vegetated areas next to streams and rivers also serve important functions. These areas are called the riparian corridors. The roots of the trees and bushes along the stream are very effective at holding the stream banks in place. This woody vegetation also works to slow the flow of water over the land, further reducing erosion of the stream banks. Riparian areas filter out most of the sediments and excessive nutrients from runoff before they can get into the streams. The branches and leaves form a cover, or canopy, over the stream. This shades the stream, keeping the water cooler. Finally, the riparian areas also serve as important habitat sites and migration corridors for wildlife. Natural streams have definite features associated within them. Riffles are the white-water areas of the waterway, just like the rapids in larger rivers. With the water rushing over and around rocks, riffles serve to add needed oxygen to the water and also serve as habitat sites for the smaller creatures like insect larvae and crayfish, collectively known as aquatic macro invertebrates. Additionally, riffle areas are the primary habitat for many young and/or smaller fish. Pools are deeper, quieter waters and are good fishing spots. Runs or glides are faster-moving water, without riffles or noticeable „white-water.‟ A 4 healthy stream will exhibit a regular pattern of riffle-pool-run habitats. River Habitat Sequences (Courtesy of Ohio EPA) The Natural History of the West Branch Glaciation During the Ice Age, advancing glaciers covered northern Ohio, including the West Branch watershed. In the graphic on the left, you can see that glacial advances have covered much of Ohio. The glaciers, towering more than 200 feet high, scraped the ground as they moved southward and brought Map of Glacier Extent in North America with them a lot of (Courtesy of U.S.G.S.) material from far away. As they melted, the land was blanketed with a 50-foot thick deposit of the material, which is called glacial till, a mixture of clay, sand, gravel and boulders. Many of the rocks and boulders mixed in with the soil of the West Branch watershed likely came with the glaciers from Canada. At the leading edges of the moving glaciers were moraines, or mounds of material, and where the glaciers stopped, the sand, stones, dirt and rocks were left as end moraines. These end moraines constitute the rolling hills that make up the southern boundary of the West Branch watershed. They also make up a dividing line between the greater Lake Erie watershed and the 5 Ohio River watershed. This dividing line is a natural boundary called the continental divide. Surface drainage of the Black River, including the West Branch, and other Lake Erie river basins generally flows to the north and into Lake Erie and then over Niagara Falls and into Lake Ontario. The waters ultimately flow into the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence River. South of these river systems, surface drainage flows south to the Ohio River, then to the Mississippi River and ultimately into the Gulf of Mexico. Watersheds are indeed nature‟s boundaries. Changes in our Lake Erie Since the retreat of the last glacier, what is now known as Lake Erie has gone through some major changes in both size and shape. The early versions of Lake Erie were formed when glacial ice blocked flow to Lake Ontario or the St. Lawrence River. The water backed up, forming huge lakes with names like Lake Warren, Lake Whittlesey and Lake Maumee. Lake Erie's present elevation is about 575 feet above sea level. Lake Warren was about 100 feet higher, Lake Whittesley was about 150 feet higher and Lake Maumee was up to 200 feet higher. Since the lakes were higher, their shorelines were many miles inland of where the Lake Erie shoreline is today. Just as with any large lake, wave action formed beaches along the shorelines. As the water levels changed, these ancient lake beaches remained as sandy ridges on the landscape. Early settlers found these ridges to be convenient travel routes as the sandy soils and slight elevations rarely flooded. Today, parts of these beach ridges remain and are still important roadways. You know them. They now carry names like Butternut Ridge Road, West Ridge Road and Murray Ridge Road. The glacial till left by the glaciers and the silty bottoms of the ancient versions of Lake Erie are the predominant soil type for the region. These soils types are generally comprised of mostly clay and silt loams. These soils have a slow permeability, meaning the soils have a very limited ability to absorb water, resulting in a seasonally high water table and a ponding of runoff waters in level areas. Wetlands Typically, wetlands were located between the ancient beach ridges and the moraines left by the glaciers. In the 1850s, settlers to Ohio began draining the wetland areas to facilitate rural, urban and 6 industrial development as well as to make the land suitable for agriculture. Now, 90% of Ohio‟s wetlands have been lost, converted to other uses. While this conversion has provided many economic benefits, wetlands provide environmental benefits that include providing wildlife habitat and enhancing water quality by trapping and filtering nutrients and sediment. Human History in the West Branch The West Branch area has figured prominently in history, especially railroad history, and the area has a well-earned reputation for its commitment to social reform, especially with respect to temperance campaigns and abolition efforts. In 1858, a fugitive slave was captured and a federal marshal attempted to return him to the South. Residents from Oberlin and Wellington helped the slave escape again, this time to Canada, in what became known as the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue case. Thirty-seven people were indicted for a violation of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Of these 37, only two were convicted and served time in jail. Oberlin became an active end station for the Underground Railroad and as a symbol of that participation, a sculpture of a rail line emerging from the ground is located at Oberlin College. Oberlin became an important Underground Railroad terminus, in part, because of its proximity to the West Branch and easy access downstream to the Black River, then Lake Erie and on to freedom in Canada.