Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge Complex

Home , Early Lake Erie, Great Black Swamp, Portage River (Ohio)

Hydrogeomorphic Evaluation of Ecosystem Restoration and Management Options for Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge Complex

Prepared For:

U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 3 Bloomington, MN

Greenbrier Wetland Services Report 16-02

Mickey E. Heitmeyer Cary M. Aloia Josh D. Eash Mary S. Gerlach

September 2016 HYDROGEOMORPHIC EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION AND MANAGEMENT OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE COMPLEX

Prepared For:

U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Region 3 Refuges and Wildlife Bloomington, MN 55437 and Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge 14000 West State Route 2 Oak Harbor, OH 43449

By:

Mickey E. Heitmeyer Greenbrier Wetland Services Advance, MO 63730

Cary M. Aloia Wetland Dynamics Monte Vista, CO 81144

and

Josh D. Eash Mary S. Gerlach U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 3 Water Resources Branch Bloomington, MN 55437

Greenbrier Wetland Services Report No. 16-02

September 2016 Mickey E. Heitmeyer, PhD Greenbrier Wetland Services Route 2, Box 2735 Advance, MO 63730 www.GreenbrierWetland.com

Publication No. 16-02

Suggested citation:

Heitmeyer, M. E., C. M. Aloia, J. D. Eash, and M. S. Gerlach. Hydrogeomorphic evaluation of ecosystem restoration and management options for Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Prepared for U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 3. Report No. 16-02. Blue Heron Conservation Design and Print- ing LLC, Bloomfield, MO.

Photo credits: USFWS, https://www.flickr.com/photos/136805129@ N03/; Cary Aloia, GardnersGallery.com; Karen Kyle

This publication printed on recycled paper by

2 Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...... 5

INTRODUCTION...... 13

THE HISTORICAL OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX ECOSYSTEM...... 17 Geology, Geomorphology, and Topography...... 17 Soils ...... 21 Climate and Hydrology...... 29 Plant and Animal Communities...... 33

CHANGES TO THE REFUGE COMPLEX ECOSYSTEM...... 45 Settlement and Early Land Use Changes...... 45 Refuge Establishment and Development History...... 47 Refuge Water and Habitat Changes ...... 55 Climate and Lake Erie Changes...... 59

ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION AND MANAGEMENT OPTIONS...... 65 General Recommendations...... 66 Specific Recommendations for ONWRC Units...... 73 Cedar Point NWR...... 73 Ottawa NWR...... 76 Navarre Marsh...... 80 Schneider, Gaeth/Kurdy, and Blausey Units...... 81 Darby Unit...... 82 Helle Unit...... 82 Knorn, Price/Adams, and Burmeister Units...... 82

3 1 CONTENTS, cont’d.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION NEEDS...... 85 Quantity and Quality of Water ...... 85 Restoring Natural Water Flow Patterns and Water Regimes ...... 86 Long-Term Changes in Vegetation and Animal Communities...... 86

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...... 87

LITERATURE CITED...... 89

Karen Kyle

4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report provides a hydrogeomorphic (HGM) evaluation of ecosystem restoration and management options for the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge Complex (ONWRC) including Ottawa NWR, Cedar Point NWR, Navarre Marsh, Darby, and eight small tracts in the expanded refuge boundary acquisition area. The refuge complex contains over 9,700 acres along the southwestern shore of Lake Erie in Ohio and includes important coastal freshwater marsh, swamp and riverfront forest, beach and dune, wet prairie and meadow, and shrub/scrub habitats. These habitats represent remnant parts of the Great Black Swamp landscape that developed in the region as proglacial Lake Maumee, the Holocene precursor to Lake Erie, receded and created a low elevation lake plain in the region.

Following European settlement in the 1800s, extensive clearing and drainage of the Great Black Swamp occurred, which converted most of the swamp area to agricultural farmland. Following the turn of the 20th Century, attention turned to drainage and development of Lake Erie coastal wetlands and prairies/meadows with extensive ditch and dike systems, drainage canals, field tiles, pump stations, and water diversion projects. Most of the Lake Erie coastal wetlands eventually were modified or destroyed, but some areas were protected and managed by duck hunting clubs including many tracts now part of the ONWRC. Following refuge establishment, starting in 1961 with the establishment of Ottawa NWR, water-control and other management infrastructure was constructed, which formed the basis for much of the sequential water and vegetation management of the refuge complex since. Frequent damage to coastal barrier beaches and the water-control infrastructure from storm events and high Lake Erie water levels has regularly compromised management capacity on the refuge complex. More recent Karen Kyle

5 ecosystem degradation has occurred from invasive plants along with degraded Lake Erie water quality.

In 2000, a Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) was developed with objectives to improve the ONWRC. More recently a Water Resource Inventory Assessment (WRIA) and comprehensive Habitat Management Plan (HMP) have been completed for the refuge complex. This HGM report assists implementation of the CCP and HMP with the following objectives: 1. Identify the Presettlement (pre-European contact) ecosystem condition and the ecological processes supporting them. 2. Evaluate changes in the ecosystem from the Preset- tlement period with specific reference to alterations in hydrology, topography, vegetation community structure and distribution, and resource availability for priority fish and wildlife species. 3. Identify restoration, enhancement, and management options for appropriate areas and habitats.

The HGM approach obtained and evaluated historical and current information about: 1) geology and geomorphology, 2) soils, 3) topography and elevation, 4) hydrology and climate, 5) plant and animal communities, and 6) physical anthropogenic features of the refuge. An important part of the HGM approach was the development of a matrix of understanding about historical vegetation communities in the ONWRC.

Major community types on the ONWRC include a gradient of habitats from low elevation coastal beaches and dunes along the Lake Erie shoreline to higher elevation inland prairie, shrub, and forest habitats. Specific community/ habitat types include: 1) beaches and dunes including the unique dune forest, 2) coastal wetland complexes ranging from semipermanently flooded emergent to seasonally flooded herbaceous assemblages, 3) seasonally flooded wet meadows and wet prairie, 4) wet-mesic prairie with some savanna interspersion, 5) shrub/scrub including wetter buttonbush- dominated and drier dogwood-dominated shrub-carr, 6) low elevation swamp forest, and 7) riparian riverfront forest.

6 Considerable information documents the extensive changes to the ONWRC ecosystem. This report summarizes this information, specifically to document the extensive hydrological changes and associated community responses. The report then provides information specifically focused on identifying options, and certain subsequent management needs, to restore and enhance select areas of the refuge where appropriate. Based on this information the following conservation actions are recommended: 1. Protect and restore the physical and hydrological character of the coastal Lake Erie ecosystem. 2. Restore natural topography, water regimes, and physical integrity of surface water flow patterns into and across ONWRC lands. 3. Restore and maintain the diversity, composition, distribution, and regenerating mechanisms of native vegetation communities in relationship to topographic and geomorphic landscape position both on ONWRC and other regional conservation lands.

General recommendations for these goals include:

Goal 1. • Protect and support sustainable land and water conservation practices in all major river and drainage areas. • Identify watershed areas and coastal zone sites that disproportionately contribute sediments, nutrients, and contaminants to rivers and coastal wetlands and target soil-water conservation and erosion-control efforts along with improvements to water quality measures to these areas. • Evaluate the influences of lakeshore seawalls, dikes, and levee systems on seasonal, annual, and long-term flooding and shoreline sediment migration/movement events in relation to chronology, duration, and magnitude. • Increase wetland-lake-river connectivity where possible to benefit native plant and animal communities.

7 • Reevaluate drainage, channelization, and diversion networks to determine rates of flow and diversion in each, along with impacts on downstream lands. • Support contaminant containment and reduction programs for watersheds, communities, and industries. • Restore native forest and wetland buffers along all regional river and stream corridors. • Restore and enhance native wetland, forest, prairie, meadow, and beach communities where possible (see Goal 3 below).

Goal 2. • Conduct a detailed assessment of all water-control infrastructure on refuge lands to determine their use and value and make recommendations to maintain, enhance, or decommission those structures that do not enable habitat management and restoration objectives or complement future management scenarios related to climate and lake level changes. Any new construction projects should seek to plan for future water level dynamics and changes if possible. This recommendation includes reevaluation of all pump stations sourced from Lake Erie. • Generally, seek to improve connectivity between Lake Erie, river/estuary, and wetland areas where practical and desirable given prior discussed constraints and considerations. • Investigate alternate water sources to replace or supplement current water sources in the expectation of future lake level changes, consistent with caveats discussed in the recent refuge complex WRIA. • Restore natural topographic features including depressions, swales, and drainages in all wetland impoundments where possible to create topographic-vegetation heterogeneity and allow water movement between and among units during high flow-flood event periods. Also, evaluate each impoundment configuration to determine options for re-coupling areas into larger units.

8 • Evaluate opportunities to encourage and enhance river-floodplain connectivity on and off refuge lands, especially the eight small tracts in the approved acquisition boundary. • Consistent with recommendations in the recent refuge complex HMP, prepare an updated refuge water management plan that attempts to emulate daily, seasonal, and interannual dynamics of wetland impoundment areas, including connected areas along Crane Creek, based on HGM attributes and suggested desired community restoration (see next sections). For example, past management in some impoundments has created conditions (often prolonged water levels) that have encouraged invasive species expansion or reduced diversity and near monocultures of species such as cattail. Other water and disturbance management regimes for specific community types are discussed below and in the area-by-area recommendations.

Goal 3. • Restore/manage cottonwood and early succession forest on remnant or restored/created shoreline beach and dune where sandy soils are present. • Restore/manage diverse species swamp forest on Toledo silt-clay soils that are seasonally flooded, sometimes for more prolonged periods during wet years. It is uncertain if elm and ash can represent substantial components of swamp forest in the future because of issues with Dutch elm disease and emerald ash borer infestation, but restoration should seek the presence of these species as advancements in knowledge about the diseases and remediation hopefully occur. Swamp forest sites in impoundments should be managed for short duration dormant season flooding, drying in summer, and periodic consecutive years of no or little flooding. • Maintain and manage coastal marsh complexes in low elevations, Toledo silt-clay ponded soils, and where lake/ river water can be provided to, or reconnected with, the site. Further, seek to restore integrated complexes of shrub, emergent, and wet meadow habitats within the

9 coastal wetland areas. Ideally, restoration and water management plans should base restoration on elevation and natural topography features, rather than artificial refuge impoundment boundaries. Consequently, all wetland areas, both impounded and connected, should be evaluated as an interconnected gradient of communities not constrained by unit levees or structures, unless they are necessary to achieve desired seasonally dynamic water and disturbance regimes. In some cases, individual unit levees, ditches, roads, or water-control structures will need to be removed or modified to create larger interconnected mosaics of habitats. • Manage coastal marsh complexes to emulate as best possible the natural seasonal and interannual dynamics of water levels/extent and vegetation/resource type and distribution. More permanently flooded wetlands should be encouraged to cycle through dry marsh to lake marsh states to sustain their communities and production and seasonally flooded marsh habitats can be managed to establish moist-soil/herbaceous species and associated invertebrate communities with seasonal water level management and rotational flooding and drying regimes among years. Additionally, where multiple managed impoundments are present within a refuge area, the impoundments can be managed on rotational bases for different dry to wet states (and associated vegetation-animal communities and resources) so that in any given year a range of wetter to drier conditions are present throughout the refuge area, consequently providing more annually consistent resources of each habitat condition while encouraging natural dynamics of vegetation, nutrients, and resources. • Restore wet meadow and wet-mesic prairie on higher elevation Maumee Lake Plain, and especially higher elevation Marblehead Drift Plain areas where short duration overbank flooding occurs (or can be managed) in a sheetflow manner. These prairie sites will require periodic disturbance, preferably from fire, to maintain a grass/sedge dominated species assemblage. Achieving restoration of wet-mesic prairies and the processes that sustain them undoubtedly will require some redesign/modification of existing water management

10 infrastructure and development of water management strategies to achieve seasonal sheetflow water regimes, coupled with periodic disturbance from fire or vegetation removal.

Specific restoration and management options are discussed for each ONWRC tract including individual impoundment or other management area designations. These recommendations include various details on configuration and design of water-control infrastructure such as managed connectivity with Lake Erie waters, seasonal and long-term management of water regimes and vegetation condition, restoration of specific vegetation communities in respective areas, and potential opportunities for more regionally connected and integrated conservation landscapes.

Future ecosystem restoration, enhancement, and management of the refuge complex should include regular monitoring and directed studies to determine how system structure and function are changing. The report identified many uncertainties in both the system nature and management effects. These uncertainties and important information needs include:

• Quantity and quality of water • Restoring natural water flow patterns and water regimes • Long-term changes in vegetation and animal communities.

Cary Aloia

11 USFWS

Karen Kyle

Cary Aloia

12 INTRODUCTION

This report provides a “hydrogeomorphic” (HGM) authority of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (16 evaluation of ecosystem restoration and management U.S.C. 715d); the authorizing purpose was stated options for the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge as: “…for use as an inviolate sanctuary, or for any Complex (hereafter ONWRC, or the “refuge complex”) other management purpose, for migratory birds” located along the southwestern shore of Lake Erie in along with preserving a portion of the remaining Ohio (Fig. 1). The refuge complex contains over 9,700 Lake Erie marshes (USFWS 2000). The USFWS acres and includes Ottawa NWR (4,902 acres), Cedar purchased the Navarre Marsh property in 1966, Point NWR (2,445 acres), Navarre Marsh (792 acres), but traded it two years later for a tract at the Darby Darby (644 acres), and eight small land tracts in area owned by Toledo Edison. The Darby site was an expanded refuge complex acquisition boundary originally purchased by Toledo Edison for a nuclear area (693 total acres in the Helle, Schneider, Gaeth/ power plant, but later deemed it unsuitable for that Kurdey, Blausey, Knorn, Burmeister, Price, and purpose. The Navarre Marsh Unit now is the site Adams units) (Fig. 2). ONWRC also contains West of the Davis Besse Nuclear Power Station, and the Sister Island NWR, which is not covered in this USFWS retained co-management rights to Navarre HGM report because of its unique position as a forested island in Lake Erie that is subject to lake conditions generally outside the management control of the refuge. The first lands acquired for what would eventually become ONWRC were tracts in the Ottawa NWR established in 1961. The Cedar Point NWR property subsequently was gifted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in 1964 by the owners of the Cedar Point Shooting Club, who Michigan had owned the property since 1882. Both Ottawa

Ohio and Cedar Point NWRs Ottawa NWR Complex Boundary 0 1 2 3 ± Miles were founded with the © OpenStreetMap (and) contributors, CC-BY-SA same purpose under Figure 1. General location of Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge Complex project area. 13 14 Heitmeyer, et al.

Helle Burmeister Price Adams Knorn Schneider Blausey Gaeth/Kurdy Darby Cedar Point Navarre Ottawa

0 1 2 3 Miles ±

Figure 2. Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge Complex land unit locations and names. under agreement with First Energy. In 1980, the Erie region was utilized by various groups of Native Lamb Beach property was added to the Cedar Point Americans starting about 11,000 to 13,000 years NWR through a grant/gift from the Lamb family. before the present (BP). Small numbers of European In 1994, the USFWS completed an environmental settlers began arriving in the ONWRC region in assessment of the ONWRC region and recommended the late 1700s, but it was not until the mid-1800s acquisition of up to 5,000 acres in an expanded that transportation routes and increased settlement refuge complex boundary. Subsequently, Public Law began to penetrate the Great Black Swamp region. 108-23, May 2003, authorized expansion and newly Thereafter, accelerated drainage and clearing essen- stated purposes for the refuge complex. Eight small tially cleared, drained, and converted most of the tracts covered by this report were thereafter acquired swamp to farmland in a relatively short period from from willing sellers on an opportunistic basis. about 1850 to 1900 (Kaatz 1955). Following the turn The ONWRC region historically supported the of the 20th Century, attention turned to drainage “Great Black Swamp” region of northwestern Ohio. and development of Lake Erie coastal wetlands with This swamp was a vast network of forest, wetland, extensive ditch and dike systems, drainage canals, and grassland in the former southwestern part of field tiles, pump stations, and water diversions. Most proglacial Lake Maumee, a Holocene precursor to of the coastal marshes eventually were extensively Lake Erie (Fig. 3). The Great Black Swamp area modified or destroyed, but fortunately many duck stretched roughly from Fort Wayne, IN to near Port hunting clubs protected and maintained some marsh Clinton, OH and from U.S. Highway 6 in the south areas starting with the Winous Point Club in 1856 to near Findlay and North Star, OH – a total area of and including many others such as the Cedar Point about 1,500 sq. miles (Kaatz 1955). The south Lake Club established in 1882 (Campbell 1995, Sedgwick HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 15

Figure 3. Maps of the historical Great Black Swamp in northwestern Ohio from: a) 1823 (Sedgwick and Kroll 2010) and b) generalized region showing adjacent lake plain and oak openings areas (from Camp- bell 1995 adapted from Forsyth 1960 and Herdendorf 1989).

and Kroll 2010). Large portions of the lands that Since then, ditches, water-control structures, and eventually became Cedar Point NWR and Ottawa pumping stations have slowly been upgraded and NWR previously had been owned and managed for constructed to improve water control capabilities duck hunting clubs for decades. Following refuge in wetland impoundments and in some cases to establishment, water-control and other management “reconnect” refuge wetland areas to adjacent rivers, infrastructure was constructed and early refuge estuaries and Lake Erie. Many structures now incor- wetland development and water management on the porate fish passage structures such as fish ladders, refuge typically was similar to previous duck club which enable lake fishes to move between wetlands water management where surface waters typically and lake or estuary/river areas. Farming on the rose and fell with Lake Erie levels. refuge complex was slowly phased out beginning in From the 1960’s through the mid-1980’s, high the 1960’s when almost 2,000 acres were farmed by Lake Erie water levels and many severe storms sharecroppers. Less than 500 acres were cropped caused extensive damage to water-control infra- in the early 2000’s and currently almost all direct structure on the refuge complex and temporary farming is discontinued. Some prior farm units on repairs limited control of water and habitat resources. refuge lands were converted into moist-soil units, 16 Heitmeyer, et al. incorporating new levees and pumping stations, communities relative to contemporary alterations to while others were restored to native grasslands and that historical condition or state (e.g., Heitmeyer and forests through planting of warm season grasses Fredrickson 2005, Heitmeyer et al. 2010, Heitmeyer and native tree species, respectively. Since the 2016, Henry and Heitmeyer 2014). The HGM process 1980’s several invasive plant species have become provides general evaluation of potential restoration problematic, especially giant reed (Arundo donax) and enhancement options for select areas and habitat and purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), which types on refuges if that is desired, practical, and con- has complicated providing important wetland sistent with meeting refuge purposes. As such, the resources while attempting to control their spread. HGM evaluations are not intended to propose refuge- Another potentially critical environmental concern wide restoration, but rather to help identify specific for ONWRC and the coastal Lake Erie region is areas and/or community types where restoration and degraded Lake Erie water quality, including major enhancement may be appropriate. This HGM evalu- increases in phosphorus and sediment levels that ation collates historic and current information about: have promoted harmful algal blooms, decreased 1) geology and geomorphology, 2) soils, 3) topography oxygen, and increased water temperatures. Collec- and elevation, 4) hydrology and flood frequency, 5) tively, altered native land, water, and community aerial photographs and cartography maps, 6) land conditions along with impending climate changes cover and vegetation communities, 7) key plant represent challenges for future management of the and animal species, and 8) physical anthropogenic refuge complex. features of the ONWRC region. Objectives for this ONWRC supports many plant and animal HGM report are: species, and specific habitat types, of concern 1. Identify the presettlement (pre-European (USFWS 2016) and was designated as an Audubon contact) ecosystem conditions and the eco- Important Bird Area (IBA) and a Western Hemi- logical processes supporting them. sphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) site of Regional Importance in 2000. It also is an important 2. Evaluate changes in the ecosystem from the designated habitat for the North American Waterfowl presettlement period with specific reference Management Plan (Soulliere et al. 2007a,b; Potter et to alterations in hydrology, topography, veg- al. 2007a,b), Partners in Flight (Knutson et al. 2001), etation community type and distribution, Ohio Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Plan, and resource availability for priority fish and Lake Erie Lakewide Management Plan (Lake Erie wildlife species. Lakewide Management Plan Work Group 2008), and 3. Identify restoration, enhancement, and man- the Great Lakes Strategy (U.S. Policy Committee agement options for appropriate areas and 2002). A Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) habitats. was completed for Ottawa NWR in 2000 to identify habitat and public use goals (USFWS 2000). The CCP was followed by a Habitat Management Plan (HMP, USFWS 2016) and Water Resource Inventory Assessment (WRIA, Gerlach 2016), which recommended specific management goals and objectives related to constraints of maintaining water delivery infrastructure, staffing, water quality and invasive plant and animal species. Collectively, these plans and assessments advocate for a more holistic system- based approach to future restoration and management efforts for the refuge complex. Recently, HGM evaluations have been used to evaluate ecosystems on many NWRs, and to assist specific CCP and HMP development and implementation efforts, with a specific goal of identifying historical community type and distribution and the ecological processes that created and sustained USFWS THE HISTORICAL OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX ECOSYSTEM

Geology, Geomorphology, and described as the Huron-Erie Sub lobe at the beginning Topography of the Port Bruce Stadia time about 15,500 years BP (Fig. 4; Shepps et al. 1959, Clark et al. 2009, Blockland The ONWRC region is an area most recently 2013). As the Huron-Erie Sub lobe retreated, several formed by a series of glaciations that occurred in the proglacial lakes were created, most notably Lake Pleistocene Period; six major glacial periods occurred Maumee, the Holocene era precursor to Lake Erie, in the last 740,000 years (Herdendorf 1987). When followed by Lake Whittlesey (Ohio Department of the last glacial “Laurentide” ice sheet of the late-Wis- Natural Resources (ODNR) 1989). consin period (11,000 to 16,000 years BP) retreated As the Holocene Great Lakes flooded and and melted, the six modern Great Lakes were formed receded over the area a series of surficial sand by glacial scouring as ice was channeled through pre- movements occurred across the region (Blockland glacial bedrock valleys (Larson and Schaetzl 2001). 2013) creating beach ridges and dunes, some of Bedrock that is resistant to scouring delineates a which still exist throughout the lake plain often at majority of the boundaries and floors of each of the some distance from current lake shore areas. The Great Lakes. Glacial ice moved across the region Findlay Arch lies directly below the ONWRC region multiple times with the most recent advance in Ohio resulting in a topographic rise to the south and a fall

Figure 4. Location of the Huron-Erie Lake Plain and the progression of moraines related to present day Lake Erie (from Brock- land 2013). 17 18 Heitmeyer, et al.

the region; the Old Maumee and Old Sandusky. These valleys occur between the resistant highs and represent the location of ancestral streams (Sparling 1965). Current rivers and creeks in the ONRWC region typically drain from the south into the west end of Lake Erie. The Sandusky River begins within an escarpment of eocarboniferous sandstone sloping to the west along the Scioto Basin but turns northward gradually flowing to Lake Erie. This river valley is fairly contained, averaging ¼ mile in width and 20 to 50 feet deep following a course outside of its preglacial drainage. Farther west, the Maumee River drained to the historic Lake Maumee, however, deposition of sediment following the retreating shoreline of Lake Maumee created a natural summit allowing the river to flow east to Lake Erie. The Maumee River has a shallow channel 50 feet in depth flowing through glacial drift. Overall drainage in northwestern Ohio flows towards Lake Erie and away from the Defiance moraine that lies to the south and west of the region (Fig 6; Bugliosi 1999, Leverett 1902). Figure 5. Location of major shallow ‘post cambrian’ structural features in Ohio and surrounding areas (from Baranoski In summary, the geomorphology of the ONWRC 2002). region was formed by extensive post-glacial lake plain sediment deposition and local river/stream channel and sediment dynamics. The ONWRC to the north beneath Lake Erie, effectively sepa- lies within the Huron-Erie, or more specifically the rating the Michigan Basin to the North and West Maumee, Lake Plain Physiographic Province of with the Appalachian Basin to the South and East. Ohio (Fig 7; Brockman 1998). The water level of The Bowling Green fault system located to the north Lake Erie currently is about 571 feet above mean and between the two basins affected deposition and sea level (amsl), but seasonal and annual fluctua- the structure of northwestern Ohio apparent during tions frequently change lake levels and inundation the post-Cambrian time (Fig. 5; Baranoski 2002). of low parts of ONWRC lands. This area generally Specifically, the Maumee Basin within the Appala- is described as a lacustrine “lake” plain with low chian Basin is a low lake plain extending approxi- relief dissected by meandering streams. Topo- mately 50 miles southwest from northwestern Ohio graphic features such as ancestral lake shore dunes, into northern Indiana and east along the southern beach ridges, bedrock reefs, and sand sheets occur shore of Lake Erie to the Sandusky River. Devonian across the area along with outcroppings of bedrock shale underlies the Maumee Basin while more composed of Lockport Dolomite or Calcareous resistant strata are present along the boundaries of sandstone (Brockman 1998, Sparling 1967, Stone et the basin. An interlobate moraine built up sediment al. 1980). The general geological land surface of the between the Saginaw and Erie lobes depositing on ONWRC region is described as Silurian dolomite average 200 feet of drift fill that ranges between shale (Fig. 8). 100 feet and 500 feet in depth across the region The topography of the ONWRC is influenced (Leverett 1902). by pre- and post-glacial features as well as lake Glacial deposits and sediments from the post- processes associated with sediment deposition and glacial Lake Maumee-Erie formed a majority of the scouring (Gerlach 2016). In general, the elevation lake plain geomorphology of the ONWRC region gradient and relief of the region increases to the punctuated by bedrock highs that are resistant to south and west. The region supports a “dendritic” erosion. A majority of the bedrock surface remains stream/river drainage network into and across the buried, characterized as two different valleys within historic lake plain and drainages typically have HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 19

Figure 6. Glacial deposits, extent of glaciation, and approximate location of the main stem and principal tributaries of the buried Teays-Mahomet valley system in the Midwestern Basins and Arches Region (from Bugliosi 1999). 20 Heitmeyer, et al.

Figure 7. Physiographic regions of Ohio (from Ohio Department of Natural Resources 2012). HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 21

Geology Age Holocene Silurian Ottawa NWR HGM Boundary

0 1 2 3 Miles ±

Figure 8. Surficial geology of the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge region (from USDA Data Gateway website). a low gradient of < 3 feet/mile (Sparling 1967, and the highest elevations on the refuge > 578 are Western Lake Erie Basin Partnership 2003). The essentially upland sites. historic floodplains of creeks and rivers are fairly flat and historically incorporate large “marshlands” due to the fairly level relict lake plain that Soils they gradually traverse to their mouths in Lake Erie (Paschall et al. 1928). Extensive barrier Soil distribution across the ONWRC reflects beaches and sand bars historically were present variable parent material origins from glacial lake along the Lake Erie shore, which buffered inland sediment deposition, scouring and deposition from estuary and marsh habitat and also controlled local river and creek floods and channel migrations, to some degree the water connectivity between and more recent Lake Erie water level dynamics and the lake and inland areas. Light Detection and seiche events. About 13 distinct soil types are present Ranging (LiDAR) topography are available for the on the ONWRC including surface areas covered by, refuge complex and show the elevation variation and designated as, water (Figs. 9a-d). The Toledo among units, although areas covered with water at soil series covers a majority of the ONWRC region the time of LiDAR flights do not accurately reflect and has locally been called “elm land,” a reference to surface bathymetry (Fig. 9). Locations below about the historic presence of elm-ash swamp across much 574’ typically are areas where Lake Erie and river of this soil type in the historic Great Black Swamp waters frequently inundate the sites. As eleva- region (Paschall et al. 1928, Conrey et al. 1943). tions grade upward to about 577’ the areas become Most (but not all) Toledo soils not referred to as less frequently flooded by high lake or river levels “ponded” formed under forest conditions of the Great 22 Heitmeyer, et al.

LiDAR A 6" Contour 568.1970595 - 570.5 570.5000001 - 571 Lake Erie 571.0000001 - 571.5 571.5000001 - 572 572.0000001 - 572.5 572.5000001 - 573 573.0000001 - 573.5 573.5000001 - 574 574.0000001 - 574.5 574.5000001 - 575 575.0000001 - 575.5 575.5000001 - 576 576.0000001 - 576.5 576.5000001 - 577 577.0000001 - 577.5 577.5000001 - 578 578.0000001 - 578.5 CP Pool 1 578.5000001 - 579 579.0000001 - 579.5 579.5000001 - 580

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 Potter's Pond Miles ±

CP Pool 2

LiDAR B 6" Contour 568.1970595 - 570.5 570.5000001 - 571 571.0000001 - 571.5 571.5000001 - 572 Metzger Marsh 572.0000001 - 572.5 572.5000001 - 573 573.0000001 - 573.5 Pool 3 573.5000001 - 574 574.0000001 - 574.5 574.5000001 - 575 575.0000001 - 575.5 MS 3 MS 4 MS 5 575.5000001 - 576 576.0000001 - 576.5 576.5000001 - 577 Pool 1 577.0000001 - 577.5 HU 6 Crane Creek Pool 2b MS 6 577.5000001 - 578 Roe Pool 2a 578.0000001 - 578.5 Crane Creek MS 8a Pool 2c 578.5000001 - 579 579.0000001 - 579.5 579.5000001 - 580 MS 8b 0 0.25 0.5 Miles ±

FU 10 FU 9

Boss

Figure 9. LiDAR-derived topography of: a) Cedar Point; b) Ottawa; c) Ottawa southeast; d) Navarre; e) Schneider, Gaeth/ Kurdy, and Blausey; f) Darby; and g) Helle, Knorn, Price/Adams, Burmeister areas. HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 23

Pool 1 C LiDAR 6" Contour 568.1970595 - 570.5 570.5000001 - 571 571.0000001 - 571.5 571.5000001 - 572 572.0000001 - 572.5 572.5000001 - 573 573.0000001 - 573.5 573.5000001 - 574 574.0000001 - 574.5 574.5000001 - 575 575.0000001 - 575.5 Woodies Roost East Woodies Roost West 575.5000001 - 576 576.0000001 - 576.5 576.5000001 - 577 577.0000001 - 577.5 577.5000001 - 578 578.0000001 - 578.5 Woodies Roost South 578.5000001 - 579 579.0000001 - 579.5 Woodies Roost Sedge 0 0.1 0.2 Miles ±

Hemminger

Kontz Kontz

Boss

D N Pool 1

N Pool 1

N Beach Ridge

LiDAR 6" Contour 570.4752736 - 570.5 570.5000001 - 571 571.0000001 - 571.5 571.5000001 - 572 572.0000001 - 572.5 572.5000001 - 573 N Pool 2 573.0000001 - 573.5 573.5000001 - 574 574.0000001 - 574.5 574.5000001 - 575 575.0000001 - 575.5 575.5000001 - 576 576.0000001 - 576.5 576.5000001 - 577 577.0000001 - 577.5 577.5000001 - 578 578.0000001 - 578.5 N Pool 3 578.5000001 - 579 579.0000001 - 579.5 579.5000001 - 580

0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 Miles ±

Figure 9, continued. LiDAR-derived topography of: a) Cedar Point; b) Ottawa; c) Ottawa southeast; d) Navarre; e) Schneider, Gaeth/Kurdy, and Blausey; f) Darby; and g) Helle, Knorn, Price/Adams, Burmeister areas. 24 Heitmeyer, et al.

Blausey East

Blausey West

Blausey Prairie LiDAR 6" Contour 570.4752736 - 570.5 570.5000001 - 571 571.0000001 - 571.5 571.5000001 - 572 572.0000001 - 572.5 572.5000001 - 573 Blausey East 573.0000001 - 573.5 573.5000001 - 574 574.0000001 - 574.5 574.5000001 - 575 575.0000001 - 575.5 575.5000001 - 576 576.0000001 - 576.5 576.5000001 - 577 577.0000001 - 577.5 577.5000001 - 578 578.0000001 - 578.5 578.5000001 - 579 579.0000001 - 579.5 579.5000001 - 580

0 0.025 0.05 0.075 Miles ±

E LiDAR 6" Contour 570.4752736 - 570.5 570.5000001 - 571 571.0000001 - 571.5 571.5000001 - 572 572.0000001 - 572.5 572.5000001 - 573 573.0000001 - 573.5 573.5000001 - 574 574.0000001 - 574.5 574.5000001 - 575 575.0000001 - 575.5 575.5000001 - 576 576.0000001 - 576.5 576.5000001 - 577 577.0000001 - 577.5 577.5000001 - 578 578.0000001 - 578.5 578.5000001 - 579 Schneider 579.0000001 - 579.5 579.5000001 - 580

0 0.025 0.05 Miles ±

Gaeth Kurdy

Developed

Gaeth Kurdy LiDAR 6" Contour 570.4752736 - 570.5 570.5000001 - 571 571.0000001 - 571.5 Gaeth Kurdy 571.5000001 - 572 572.0000001 - 572.5 572.5000001 - 573 573.0000001 - 573.5 573.5000001 - 574 574.0000001 - 574.5 574.5000001 - 575 575.0000001 - 575.5 575.5000001 - 576 Toussaint River 576.0000001 - 576.5 576.5000001 - 577 577.0000001 - 577.5 577.5000001 - 578 578.0000001 - 578.5 578.5000001 - 579 579.0000001 - 579.5 579.5000001 - 580

0 0.0250.05 0.075 Miles ±

Young west Young east

LiDAR 6" Contour D Pool 1 570.4752736 - 570.5 570.5000001 - 571 571.0000001 - 571.5 571.5000001 - 572 572.0000001 - 572.5 572.5000001 - 573 573.0000001 - 573.5 573.5000001 - 574 D Pool 3 574.0000001 - 574.5 D Pool 2 574.5000001 - 575 D Pool 4 575.0000001 - 575.5 575.5000001 - 576 576.0000001 - 576.5 576.5000001 - 577 577.0000001 - 577.5 577.5000001 - 578 578.0000001 - 578.5 578.5000001 - 579 579.0000001 - 579.5 579.5000001 - 580

0 0.1 0.2 Miles ±

LiDAR 6" Contour 570.5000001 - 571 571.0000001 - 571.5 571.5000001 - 572 Burmeister 572.0000001 - 572.5 572.5000001 - 573 573.0000001 - 573.5 573.5000001 - 574 574.0000001 - 574.5 574.5000001 - 575 575.0000001 - 575.5 575.5000001 - 576 576.0000001 - 576.5 576.5000001 - 577 577.0000001 - 577.5 577.5000001 - 578 578.0000001 - 578.5 578.5000001 - 579 579.0000001 - 579.5 579.5000001 - 580

0 0.025 0.05 Miles ±

Helle Toussaint River Helle woods

LiDAR 6" Contour 570.5000001 - 571 Helle wetland 571.0000001 - 571.5 571.5000001 - 572 572.0000001 - 572.5 572.5000001 - 573 573.0000001 - 573.5 573.5000001 - 574 574.0000001 - 574.5 574.5000001 - 575 575.0000001 - 575.5 575.5000001 - 576 576.0000001 - 576.5 576.5000001 - 577 577.0000001 - 577.5 577.5000001 - 578 578.0000001 - 578.5 578.5000001 - 579 579.0000001 - 579.5 579.5000001 - 580

0 0.025 0.05 0.075 ± Miles

Knorn

LiDAR 6" Contour 570.4752736 - 570.5 570.5000001 - 571 571.0000001 - 571.5 571.5000001 - 572 572.0000001 - 572.5 572.5000001 - 573 573.0000001 - 573.5 573.5000001 - 574 574.0000001 - 574.5 574.5000001 - 575 575.0000001 - 575.5 575.5000001 - 576 576.0000001 - 576.5 576.5000001 - 577 577.0000001 - 577.5 577.5000001 - 578 578.0000001 - 578.5 578.5000001 - 579 579.0000001 - 579.5 579.5000001 - 580

0 0.025 0.05 0.075 Miles ±

0 0.025 0.05 0.075 LiDAR Miles 6" Contour 570.4752736 - 570.5 ± 570.5000001 - 571 G 571.0000001 - 571.5 571.5000001 - 572 572.0000001 - 572.5 572.5000001 - 573 573.0000001 - 573.5 573.5000001 - 574 574.0000001 - 574.5 574.5000001 - 575 575.0000001 - 575.5 575.5000001 - 576 576.0000001 - 576.5 576.5000001 - 577 Adams 577.0000001 - 577.5 577.5000001 - 578 578.0000001 - 578.5 578.5000001 - 579 579.0000001 - 579.5 579.5000001 - 580

Adams

Price

A Lucas soils Soil series Fulton silty clay loam, 0 to 2% slopes

Cedar Point Unit Latty silty clay Ottokee fine sand, 0 to 6% slopes Toledo silty clay Toledo silty clay, ponded Water Ottawa NWR HGM Boundary

0 0.25 0.5 ± Miles

Figure 10. Ottawa NWR Complex soils on: a) Cedar Point NWR; b) Ottawa NWR and the Helle Unit; c) Navarre Marsh and the Schneider, Gaeth/Kurdy, and Blausey Units; and d) Darby, Knorn, Burmeister, Price and Adams Units (from U.S. Department of Agriculture SSURGO data).

Black Swamp era (Paschall et al. 1928). In contrast, as being somewhat poorly drained but providing Toledo “ponded” soil areas seem most likely to have slightly better drainage than the Toledo series. been coastal marsh complex areas, at least in the most Both soils occur at slightly higher elevations that recent decadal periods. Toledo soils are generally are gently sloping and typically adjacent to, or inter- described as occurring on broad flat lake plains and spersed within, the Toledo series. Fulton soils likely other inland coastal zone depressions that are very reflect the development of natural levees and river- poorly drained. The series was formed in clayey gla- front forest corridors along stream channels, while ciolacustrine lakebed sediments deposited by glacial the Nappanee series was formed in silty and clayey meltwater lakes, including ice-margin waters and glacial till and includes sites formerly under forest, other glacial erosion or deposition (Gerlach 2016, wet prairie, and meadow vegetation (Paschall et al Conrey et al 1943, Musgrave and Derringer 1985). 1928, Musgrave and Derringer 1985). Older soil These soils have a seasonal high water table that surveys also reference Danbury soils, which formed allows for surface flooding during heavy rainstorms under prairie vegetation, usually on higher remnant (Conrey et al 1943, Musgrave and Derringer 1985). terraces and ridges (Paschall et al. 1928). This Other heavy clay lake plain soils include Brookstone, Danbury soil taxonomy later was integrated into Bono, and Maumee series and most likely were previ- the Nappanee and St. Clair series (Musgrave and ously forested and coastal wetland areas. Derringer 1985). The Fulton, Nappanee, and a less Other common soils on the ONWRC include the common St. Clair soil type, have substantial loam Fulton and Nappanee series, which are described components to the soil profile. A few other soil types HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 29

B Ottawa Unit

Ottawa soils Soil series Latty silty clay Nappanee silty clay loam, 0 to 3% slopes St. Clair silty clay loam, 4 to 12% slopes, eroded Toledo silty clay Toledo silty clay, ponded Water Fulton silty clay loam, 0 to 2% slopes Ottawa NWR HGM Boundary Helle Unit

0 0.25 0.5 0.75 ± Miles

occur along the Lake Erie shore and are primarily The climate of the ONWRC area is charac- sands beaches, bars, and dunes. These include the terized as humid continental with temperature, Oakville, Algansee, Glendora, and Ottokee series precipitation, and storm events strongly influenced that occur on the ONWRC along beach ridges and by the Great Lakes environment. Temperatures are are well drained. Sandy soils and surface dune-type somewhat buffered by the Lake Erie conditions such deposits are most common near Cedar Point NWR that the refuge may be cooler than inland areas and near the Port Clinton embayment, such as on during the summer and warmer during the winter. shoreline areas of the Navarre and Darby units (Fig. Annual temperatures typically vary from 17o to 10; ODNR 2012). 84o Fahrenheit, rarely going below 0o or above 92o Fahrenheit. The average growing season is approximately 125 days, mid-May through mid-September. Climate and Hydrology The refuge area receives an average of 32 inches of rain and 14 inches of snow per year with A complete description of the climate and a majority of this precipitation occurring April hydrology of the ONWRC region is provided in the through July although weather and precipitation recently completed WRIA report (Gerlach 2016). vary greatly within and across years. Long-term The following text provides a brief summary of precipitation data from a weather station on Ottawa select information (see also the references provided NWR suggest that precipitation patterns alternate in the WRIA). from wet to dry periodicity at 20-30 year intervals. 30 Heitmeyer, et al.

Navarre Unit Schneider Unit

Gaeth/Kurdy Unit Ottawa soils Soil series Bono silty clay Glendora loamy fine sand, frequently flooded Nappanee silty clay loam, 0 to 3% slopes Oakville fine sand, 2 to 8% slopes Toledo silty clay Toledo silty clay, ponded Udorthents, gently sloping Water Blausey Unit Ottawa NWR HGM Boundary

0 0.2 0.4 ± Miles

Lower precipitation occurs every 25 years for a short creeks (Fig. 12). Water from Lake Erie has strong period with higher precipitation every 20-30 years daily, seasonal, and interannual dynamics (Keough with an overall increasing trend in the 20th Century. et al. 1999). The refuge complex lies almost entirely Precipitation varies greatly between years, usually within the Cedar-Portage hydrologic unit (Fig. 13); following a cycle of high and then low rainfall (Fig. the small exception is a small portion of the Price 11; Prism data 1895-2014). Severe weather condi- and Adams unit lands near the Portage River. Ten tions can be common in the ONWRC region and hydrologic sub-units are present (Fig. 14). These cause high winds, flash flooding, and sometimes creeks flow slowly to the north and east, emptying tornadoes. Northeast winds commonly cause large into coastal marshes and Lake Erie (Stone et al seiche events that can create eight foot waves on 1980). High peak flows within the Maumee, Portage, Lake Erie, which pushes water into wetlands along and Sandusky River basins occur in the spring as the lakeshore and backs water up the Crane Creek snow melts and rainfall adds to peak stream flows. estuary. Conversely, winds from the southwest can A gage station at Fremont, OH on the Sandusky essentially push water out of the marshlands. River provides the best comparison for discharges of The primary water inputs to the ONWRC creeks and rivers directly impacting the ONWRC. In ecosystem historically included connected Lake Erie general flows have increased over time, both annually water and several inland creeks and rivers that ulti- and during the peak flow times (Fig. 15). Lake Erie mately emptied into the lake including Crane Creek, water levels also generally increased from lows in the Toussaint River, Portage River, and other small 1930s to the late 1990s, but since 2000 water levels HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 31

Darby Unit

Knorn Unit

Ottawa soils Soil series Algansee fine sand, occasionally flooded Nappanee silty clay loam, 0 to 3% slopes Oakville fine sand, 2 to 8% slopes Toledo silty clay Burmeister Unit Toledo silty clay, ponded Udorthents, gently sloping Water Ottawa NWR HGM Boundary Price Unit Adams Unit 0 0.25 0.5 0.75 ± Miles

Figure 10, continued. Ottawa NWR Complex soils on: a) Cedar Point NWR; b) Ottawa NWR and the Helle Unit; c) Navarre Marsh and the Schneider, Gaeth/Kurdy, and Blausey Units; and d) Darby, Knorn, Burmeister, Price and Adams Units (from U.S. Department of Agriculture SSURGO data). have been consistent, and are projected to decrease crests of arches and is thickest along the sides of the in the future (Fig. 16; Magnuson et al. 1997, Lofgren Findlay Arch (Fig. 5) located in northwestern Ohio, et al. 2002, Kling et al. 2003). Lake Erie is shallow ranging from 0 to 2,300 feet. Water is generally held and has a lower overall volume compared to the other within the first 100 feet of the carbonate aquifer and Great Lakes. Consequently, it tends to be relatively within fractures of the rock. An upper confining responsive to regional rainfall, runoff, and storm unit is comprised of Antrim Shale and Bedford Shale events including strong prevalence of seiches. which are generally described as clay-rich. Pleis- Glacial deposits in the ONWRC region overlie tocene glacial deposits overlie the aquifer and reflect a carbonate-rock aquifer with a basal confining a mixture of unconsolidated deposits resulting from layer consisting of Upper Ordovician rock 200 feet multiple periods of glacial movement across the in thickness throughout northwestern Ohio that region. These deposits are characterized by sands gradually thickens to the east and west (Fig. 17; and gravels along with alluvium of the Holocene age Bugliosi 1999). This aquifer is characterized by near streams and are typically less than 100 ft in Silurian and Devonian bedrock that are a result of depth. Vertical water flow occurs in the ONWRC tectonic forces during the formation of the Michigan region due to fractures in the glacial till allowing basin and arches region. The Silurian carbonate movement within the surficial deposit (Bugliosi rocks lie above the confining layer overlain by a 1999). The main supply of groundwater lies at about thinner layer of Devonian rocks and separated by a 15 to 25 feet below the surface within the overlying major unconformity. The aquifer tends to thin near surficial aquifer (Stone et al. 1980). Depth to ground- 32 Heitmeyer, et al.

Figure 11. Annual precipitation for the Ottawa NWR Complex region 1895-2014 (from Gerlach 2016). water within the refuge region varies considerably shown that the water table is highest in the spring from about 2 to 65 feet below the surface depending with an overall decrease in depth from the surface on the time of year and the seasonal and annual to the water table since 2009 (Fig. 18). Carbonate inputs. A monitoring well in Bellevue, OH has aquifer responses to surficial hydrology can be rapid

R C A W A T T O

R E E M U A M

k e re R T C C IN e SA n US ra TO C

PORTAGE R

R C Y D D R U KY M US ND SA R

Rivers E

R SourceO: Etstria, Dwigaita lGNloWbe, RGe oHEyGeG, Mi-cu Bbedo, uEanrtdhsatarr yGeogr0aphic1s, CN2ES/A3irbus4 DS, USDA, Miles ± USGS, AEX, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, swisstopo, and the GIS User Community

Figure 12. Location of major rivers and creeks in the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge Complex region. HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 33

HUC 8 NAME Cedar-Portage Lake Erie Sandusky Ottawa NWR HGM Boundary

0 1 2 3 Miles±

Figure 13. Location of the Ottawa NWR Complex in relation to HUC 8 subdivisions (data from USDA Data Gateway website). . depending on local geology, with distinct areas of the scrub (S/S) habitats present along the coast; these refuge complex responding differently to long-term habitats occurred on Toledo clayey lake deposits and wet or dry cycles. For example, Fig. 18 shows water-worked glacial till. The Ottawa NWR unit increased water levels that coincide with increases lies in the transition zone between the Maumee Lake in precipitation events in 2011. Plain and the Marblehead Drift/Limestone Plain. The east side of Ottawa NWR along with Darby, Navarre, and the eight small refuge expansion Plant and Animal Communities boundary units are within the Marblehead geomorphic region (Fig. 20). This region, in addition Ecoregion boundaries throughout the north and to supporting coastal marsh and swamp habitats, west portions of Ohio generally follow the boundaries also historically contained higher elevation lands of glacial till and other geologic events which mark that supported beech forests and scattered carbonate the transition between topographic and biological ridges that sustained mixed oak forests and prairies. communities (Fig. 19; Forsyth 1970). The ONWRC Vegetation communities in the ONWRC lies within the Great Lakes Basin, and specifically region historically evolved toward a coastal wetland the Maumee Lake Plain and the Marblehead Drift/ dominated community starting with the retreat Limestone Plain, EPA Ecoregions IV (Fig. 20). Cedar of the Wisconsin glaciers. About 14,000 years BP, Point NWR and the western part of Ottawa NWR ancestral Lake Maumee and retreating ice covered are within the Maumee Lake Plain, which was his- the modern Lake Erie and ONWRC region (Fig. 21). torically characterized by elm-ash swamp and beech By about 12,200 BP the ancestral lake waters began forests with emergent marshes and wetland shrub/ drainage down the newly ice-free Ontario Basin and 34 Heitmeyer, et al.

HUC 12 Berger Ditch Cedar Creek-Frontal Lake Erie Crane Creek-Frontal Lake Erie Lacarpe Creek-Frontal Lake Erie Lacarpe Creek-Portage River Lake Erie Little Muddy Creek Little Portage River Lower Toussaint Creek Packer Creek Pelee Island Portage River Sugar Creek Town of Gypsum-Frontal Sandusky Bay Town of Lindsey-Muddy Creek Turtle Creek-Frontal Lake Erie Upper Toussaint Creek Ottawa NWR HGM Boundary

0 1 2 Miles ±

Figure 14. Location of the Ottawa NWR Complex in relation to HUC 12 subdivisions (data from USDA Data Gateway website).

left water only in the deepest part of modern Lake Unlike other forest-swamp areas of the Great Lakes Erie (Herdendorf and Bailey 1989). At this time region, the Great Black Swamp did not contain the larger drained basin area evolved as a swamp conifers, although red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) forest, probably first occupied by black spruce (Picea was present (Schaffner 1915, Sears 1925, Sampson mariana) with some white cedar (Chamaecyparis 1930). The lowest frequently flooded areas were thyoides), willow (Salix spp.), poplar (Populus spp.), dominated by ash (Fraxinus spp.), elm, cottonwood quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) and some elm (Populus deltoides) and sycamore (Platanus occiden- (Ulmus spp.) and maple (Acer spp.) (Campbell 1995). talis) while slightly higher areas with some topo- Higher sites likely had some white spruce (Picea graphic relief and better drainage contained American glauca), fir (Abies spp.), and hemlock (Tsuga spp.). beech (Fagus grandifolia), maple, American basswood As post-glacial climates moderated and became (Tilia americana), tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), gradually warmer, the cooler spruce forests changed and other more mesic species. The highest elevated to hardwood species and lower elevations supported relict beach ridges and moraines with high drainage mosaics of woody swamps and S/S, emergent marshes, supported xeric species including oak (Quercus spp.) wet meadows and prairies, and open water ponds and and hickory (Carya spp.). river/estuaries. Known as the “Great Black Swamp”, The ice-free region of the eastern side of Lake this forested-marsh area historically covered roughly Erie began to rebound and by about 4,300 years BP 4,000 km2 from the shore of Lake Erie between the drainage from the lake had slowed over Niagara Falls Maumee and Portage Rivers to the southwest region and the Erie Lake Basin filled to about its present size through the beginning of the 1900s (Gerlach 2016; (Fig. 21). This rise in water inundated the northern Sedgewick and Kroll; Herdendorf 1987; Pfaff 2012). portions of the historic Great Black Swamp and pushed HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 35

Figure 15. . Average annual discharge trends for the Sandusky River near Fremont, OH (from Gerlach 2016). water up into other forest areas causing a gradual high seiches that quickly change water levels in the transition of forest to freshwater marsh complexes. western basin of Lake Erie and inundate marshes. When the lake levels stabilized, the shorelines of the Coastal wetlands affected by seiches and storm events open water lake became sites of drifting sands that on Lake Erie can see water levels raised and then sub- built up sandbars on the outer edges of shallows and sequently lowered up to eight feet sometimes within essentially formed dissected “levees” or berms that a 24 hour period, whereas more inland wetlands supported a variety of herbaceous sand vegetation to typically are buffered by these events (Herdendorf early succession-type forests depending on time since 1987). Ironically, strong southwest winds can have disturbance and the last sand depositions. Common an opposite effect to seiches, and essentially “blow” beach and sand bar/dune trees included red ash water out of inland marshes that are connected to (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), red maple (Acer rubrum), the lake. The combined pushing of water one way box elder (Acer nugundo), cottonwood, and willow. Coastal marsh and swamp complexes formed on the land side of the beach berms, which acted to effectively “levee” or “buffer” the marshes from the lake proper. Periodic storms raised Lake Erie levels, which overtopped or breached shoreline beaches and bars and caused widespread and extensive lake water to flow into coastal shoreline marshes and far inland to swamp areas. As water receded, the sandbars typically reformed only to be destroyed by the next large storm – a recurring cycle for the region over the past 4-5,000 years. Strong northeast winds can create Figure 16. Average annual Lake Erie water level at Fairport, OH (from Gerlach 2016). 36 Heitmeyer, et al.

Figure 17. Generalized hydrogeologic sections A-A’, B-B’, and C-C’, Midwestern Basin and Arches Region (from Bugliosi 1999). HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 37

Figure 18. Depth to groundwater at U.S. Geological Survey location 411819082493900, E-10, 2009-2014 (from Gerlach 2016). or the other from seiches and southwest winds can alteration of sediment transport and deposition along create a “bathtub slosh” effect in lake marsh areas. Lake Erie shorelines. Remnant beaches including Over time, the combination of higher water sites on Cedar Point, Navarre, and Darby contain at levels and more recent land clearing caused the least seven rarer species including beach wormwood Great Black Swamp to diminish and be replaced by (Artemisia campestris), Schweinitz’s umbrella sedge either mostly marsh or agricultural lands. Sometime (Cyperus schweinitizii), Tuckerman’s panic grass before 1800, a large area of former swamp forest was (Panicum tuckermanii), bushy cinquefoil (Potentilla supposedly destroyed by high water, which caused paradoxa), three-square bulrush (Schoenoplectus a transition to marsh and wet prairie habitats pungens), and Oakes evening primrose (Oenothera (Campbell 1995). oakesiana). The higher elevation bars and dunes Community types in the ONWRC region adjacent to beaches typically were forested and are arrayed along elevation gradients (Fig. 22). A supported early succession tree and shrub species brief description of the generally recognized major because of the shorter longevity and high soil dis- community types is provided below. More complete turbance of the site. Common species included cot- descriptions of plant and animal species associated tonwood, red cedar, dogwood (Cornus spp.), willow, with each community/habitat type is found in sumac (Rhus spp.), and grape (Vitis spp.). Cot- USFWS (2016) and references cited. tonwood-dominated dunes now are an especially Beaches and dunes formed as wave action rare type (NatureServe 2014). The best relict site deposited sand along Lake Erie shorelines. Veg- of this cottonwood dune forest community is Lamb’s etation on these sandy barrier habitats ranged from Woods at Cedar Point NWR. Beach areas provide sparsely vegetated sand beaches to more densely important habitat for many shorebird species while covered forests on the higher berms and dunes. beach-dune forests are favored migration corridor As mentioned above, these shoreline habitats were sites for many Neotropical songbirds (Shieldcastle subject to frequent disturbance, breaching, and even 2003-2013a,b). total destruction from high waves and storm events. The coastal wetland complex located inland of The Great Lakes Beach community now is a rare type barrier beaches and dunes, and in lower elevation because of contemporary armoring of shorelines and areas frequently flooded by overbank floods and 38 Heitmeyer, et al.

Figure 19. Geological regions of Ohio coupled with dominant natural vegetation (from Forsyth 1970).

lake plain depressions, contains a continuum of veg- wet prairies dominated by sedges (Carex spp.), etation/habitats. These habitats includes deep open short rushes (Juncus spp.), and many wet and water with submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), deep wet-mesic prairie species. Other common species emergent wetlands, and shallow more seasonally in coastal marshes included broad-leaved cattail flooded emergent and herbaceous habitats – this latter (Typha latifolia), sedges, bulrushes (Scirpus seasonally flooded zone includes periodic exposed spp.), bluejoint grass (Calamagrostis canadensis), mud flats and grass-annual assemblages commonly duckweeds (Lemna spp.), pickerelweed (Pont- referred to as “moist-soil.” Coastal wetlands occur on ederia cordata), arrowhead (sometimes called clay and silt-clay soils, especially the Toledo silt clay blue tongue, Sagittaria latifolia), water lily “ponded” soil series (see Fig. 9). The distribution (Nymphaea tuberose), American lotus (Lelumbo of these various marsh species assemblages varies lutea), bur-reed (Sparganium sp.), bladderwort over time as water levels fluctuate with wet and dry (Utricularia vulgaris), pondweeds (Potamogeton climate periods (Fig. 23). Early accounts of Lake spp.), smartweed (Polygonum spp.), and many Erie coastal marshes also refer to extensive areas others (Pieters 1901, Jennings 1908, Sears 1916, of cane, grass, or prairie (Kaatz 1955, Sears 1927, Lowden 1967, Moore 1976, Sedgwick and Kroll 2010). Campbell 1995). The cane was likely native phrag- The extent of open water vs. emergent cover in these mites (Phragmites australis americanus); grasses marshes also varied over time in relation to the inter- were probably many different wetland species such annual duration of flooding, muskrat (Ondatra zibet- as spikerush (Eleocharis spp.), panic grass (Panicum hicus) populations, wind and wave disturbance, and dichotimiflorum), and millet (Echinochloa spp.); and water clarity (e.g., see van der Valk and Davis 1978). prairies probably were mixed wet meadows and Many parts of the ONWRC contain remnant coastal HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 39

Physiographic ecoregions Name Marblehead Drift/Limestone Plain Maumee Lake Plain Ottawa NWR HGM Boundary

0 1 2 Miles ±

Figure 20. Environmental Protection Agency physiographic ecoregions in the Ottawa NWR Complex area. marsh habitats, albeit most are impounded with at continuum and reflected local changes or inclusions least partly controlled water regimes. Examples of of different soils, especially those types with strong connected marsh habitats remain at Potter’s Pond loam components such as Fulton, Nappanee, and St. on Cedar Point NWR, along Crane Creek at Ottawa Clair soil types (Stone et al 1980; General Land Office NWR, and minor connected locations on some of the (GLO) 1820 notes). For example, the 1820 survey of smaller tracts. Marsh habitats provide important T8 R15, sections 29-35 indicates that wet prairies resources for many bird, mammal, and amphibian were interspersed with timbered areas surrounding species for foraging, nesting, brood rearing, resting, the mouth of Crane Creek (Fig. 24). The meadow- thermal cover, and escape cover (many references prairie complex is separated into lake plain wet including Campbell 1995, USFWS 2016). These prairie, bluejoint wet meadow, central cordgrass wet marsh areas also represent important foraging and prairie and lake plain wet-mesic (tallgrass) prairie spawning areas for fish moving into these areas in some plant community classifications (USFWS during high water periods. 2016). The distinction between these sub-categories Wet meadows and wet prairies were scattered generally reflects species assemblages and variation throughout the ONWRC region on higher eleva- in flooding type, duration, and frequency along with tions adjacent to coastal marshes that flooded sea- soil type. For example, permeable sands laid over sonally, often from overland sheetflow of water from clay subsoils make wet spring vs. dry summer con- seasonal lake backwaters or headwater drainage ditions more extreme. The higher elevations that from adjacent upland areas. These sites often were support wet-mesic communities typically contain heterogeneous inclusions within the marsh-swamp abundant big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi), switch- 40 Heitmeyer, et al.

A B

C D

Figure 21. Composite dynamics of the Lake Erie region from 14,000 BP to the present. A) Lake Maumee, first ancestor of Lake Erie, 14,000 years ago; B) Lake Lundy, 12,400 years ago; C) Early Lake Erie, 12,200 years ago; D) Present Lake Erie, 4,300 years ago. (From Campbell 1995). grass (Panicum virgatum), Virginia wildrye (Elymus Transition areas between tree-dominated virginucus), and Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) swamps and adjacent meadows/prairies and coastal along with some species of slightly wetter sites. marshes often contained S/S communities. These S/S Lower elevation wet sites in glacial lake plains have habitats include “shrub-carr” and “shrub swamp” diverse assemblages that include bluejoint grass, types; the former containing drier-type shrub veg- prairie cordgrass (Spartina pectinata), and many etation with a strong dogwood component that rushes, sedges, and swamp milkweed (Asclepias invades into wet meadows and prairies, while shrub incarnata). The rare eastern prairie fringed orchid swamps represent the zone between marsh and (Platanthera leucophaea) also is present in some swamp typically with semipermanent water regimes locations such as along the Crane Creek estuary. and abundant buttonbush (Cephalanthus occiden- Other areas with some remnant prairie vegetation talis), willow, maple and ash. Shrublands support assemblages include sites on Ottawa NWR and the many animal species associated with both forest and Pheasant Farm area on Cedar Point NWR. Because marsh-meadow habitats and also represent tran- of their occasionally drier condition, the meadows sition corridors between respective habitat types and prairies had periodic fire and herbivory that (USFWS 2016). helped maintain community structure and pro- Some relict ancient beach ridges in the inland ductivity. These meadows and prairies provided areas of the southwest Lake Erie coastal zone, important resources to many grassland-dependent especially northwest of the current Maumee River, bird and mammal species in the Great Lakes region contain sandy and sand-loam soils and have been (USFWS 2016). referred to as “Oak Openings” that apparently HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 41 supported savanna type oak- grassland-meadow communities (Fig. 3b). It also seems likely that other forest-prairie zones contained some savanna in the ONWRC region. These sites typically would have occurred on silt-clay-loam soils in higher elevations where flatwoods and some higher zone swamp forest areas graded to wet-mesic prairie. As with S/S areas, savanna provided resources and connected corridor areas to both forest and prairie/ meadow associated animal species. Historical forests in the ONWRC region included the iconic swamp forests of the Great Figure 22. Profile of a typical Great Lakes coastal marsh in relation to lake-level Black Swamp, but also higher dynamics (from USFWS 2016). elevation wet-mesic flatwoods and “riverfront” or “floodplain” forests along stream/river corridors (Sears 1925, Sampson General Land Office (GLO) surveys conducted 1930, Gordon 1966). At the higher elevations, the in 1820 and 1835 in northwestern Ohio note the flatwoods had a diverse mixture of upland and general locations of various creeks and rivers, hardwood species including oak, hickory, maple, ash, hackberry (Celtis occidentalis), elm, and basswood. These sites had infre- quent growing season inundation from more extreme flood events or overland headwater drainage flows. Riverfront or floodplain forests were early succession species assemblages along stream corridors, especially on the higher elevation natural levees that adjoined the streams. Cottonwood, sycamore, silver maple (Acer saccharinum), and green ash (Fraxinus pennslyvanica) were common riverfront species. These riverfront areas received periodic overbank flooding that frequently scoured or deposited sediments and caused sites to have less stable soil surfaces over time. In extreme disturbance periods, river channels migrated and left inside-bend “point bar” areas that had veneers of coarse sand sediments and some silt that enabled extensive regeneration of cottonwood and sycamore. The true hardwood swamp forests of the region contained lowland hardwood species dominated by elm, green and black ash (Fraxinus nigra), red maple, and modest amounts of oak and box elder. Swamp hydrology was typically dormant Figure 23. Diagram of the effects of variable water level fluctuations season flooding. in a Great Lakes coastal wetland community (from USFWS 2016). 42 Heitmeyer, et al.

Figure 24. Comparison of 1990s National Wetland Inventory wetland classification types with 1820 General Land Office survey maps for R15E, T8N, Section 29-35 on Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge Complex. swampland, marshes, and wet prairies (Gordon prairie and forest. Another rough-scale map of the 1966). Surveyor notes indicate that many species area, prepared by Sears (1925) indicates various of trees were present including maple, cotton- forest types in the ONWRC region ranging from woods, willow, oak, hickory, and sycamore although oak-hickory (at an apparently higher elevation site) American elm (Ulmus americana) and black and to more typical swamp forest at lower elevations with green ash were the dominant trees within the elm-ash-maple present. Original soil maps prepared remnant Great Black Swamp (Sears 1925). A map of for Ottawa County in 1928 (Paschall et al. 1928) and general vegetation communities in Ohio at the time Lucas County in 1934 (Conrey et al. 1943) suggest of settlement indicates that most of the ONWRC was that Darby, Navarre, Cedar Point, and the north freshwater marsh (Fig. 25), but undoubtedly, the part of Ottawa refuge lands were coastal wetlands vegetation communities identified were present in in the early 1900s, with substantial former swamp dynamic interfaces along topographic, geomorphic, forest in other areas, including S/S bands on Toledo, soils, and hydrology gradients. Sites near the coast Bono, and Maumee silty clay soils; riverfront forest such as Cedar Point, the Crane Creek estuary area corridors likely with early succession cottonwood of Ottawa NWR, Navarre, and Darby seem likely and mixed softwoods on Fulton soils; wet prairie on to have been mostly coastal marsh, with annually the formerly designated Danbury soil; and dynamic variable extent and type. Other areas including mixed prairie-wet meadow, along with some forest, higher elevations on the Ottawa NWR and much of communities on Nappanee and St. Clair soils. the eight acquisition boundary small tracts probably A generalized matrix of community relationships contained higher zone communities including wet with HGM attributes of the ONWRC region is presented HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 43 in Table 1. These relationships essentially reflect hydrological attributes from the early 1800’s, pre-altered presettlement time, to more current periods. Clearly, variable water levels in Lake Erie created punctuated events of widespread shoreline erosion or breaching and inundation of lake plain areas far into the interior areas with alternating periods of rebuilding lake shore bars and more stable, seasonally dynamic water regimes. A discussion of the disturbance ecology of the ONWRC region is provided in the refuge HMP (USFWS 2016), which characterizes the interannual dynamics of community type and distribution. Consequently, Figure 25. Natural vegetation of Ohio at the time of the earliest surveys (Robert B. Gordon map taken from 1966 maps of the Ohio Biological Survey and reprinted in it is difficult to construct maps USFWS 2016). of potential historical “presettlement” vegetation community

Table 1. Hydrogeomorphic (HGM) matrix of historical distribution of major vegetation communities/habitat types in the ONWRC region in relationship to geomorphic surface, soils, topography, and hydrological regime. Relationships were determined from vegetation species distribution maps (Sears 1925, 1820 GLO survey notes, Gordon maps in USFWS 2016, Great Black Swamp maps in Sedgwick and Kroll 2010); soils maps (Fig. 9), surficial geology maps (Figs. 6, 8); region-specific hydrology and river flood frequency data (see Gerlach 2016); and various historical accounts and literature (Pietes 1901, Jennings 1908,Fullmer 1916, Sears 1916, Sears 1925, Paschall et al. 1928, Conrey et al. 1943, Kaatz 1955, Gordon 1966, Lowden 1967, Forsyth 1970, Moore 1967, Herdendorf 1987, Campbell 1995).

Habitat type Geomorphic surface Soil type Hydrological regime

Beach Lakeshore beach Sand LS-DSa Dune Forest Lakeshore dunes Algansee, Oakville, Ottokee, LS-ST Glendora Coastal Marsh Complex Lakeplain, estuary-riverine Toledo ponded P-SP floodplain Wet Meadow/Wet Prairie, Lakeplain, marsh fringes Fulton, Nappanee, Toledo OS-S - SP Shrub-scrub Wet-mesic Prairie, Shrub-carr, High lakeplain, interior terrace, Nappanee, Fulton, St. Clair OS-S Savanna relict beach ridges Swamp Forest Lakeplain Toledo S Flatwoods High elevation terrace, ridge, Nappanee OS-D upland plains

a LS_DS = daily and seasonal lakeshore wind/waves and seiches; LS-ST = seasonal or periodic lakeshore wave and storm event flooding; P-SP = permanently or semipermanently flooded; OS-S - SP = onsite and seasonal flooding for meadows and prairies in a sheetflow pattern and seasonal and semipermanent flooding for shrub-scrub; OS-S = onsite seasonal flooding; S = seasonal backwater or headwater inundation; OS-D = onsite flooding with some occasional longer duration seasonal flooding in terrace and upland depressions. 44 Heitmeyer, et al. distribution, which was dynamic with various history requirements are found in the refuge CCP periods or “windows” of specific distribution. (USFWS 2000), HMP (USFWS 2016), and other Animal communities common within the regional publications (Herdendorf 1987, Campbell Lake Erie coastal wetlands and former Great Black 1995). In addition to abundant birds and mammals, Swamp area were typical of those found throughout many fish, mussel, amphibian, and reptile species the Great Lakes ecosystem (Campbell 1995). More existed within the swamp, rivers, coastal wetlands, complete lists of fish and wildlife species in the and Lake Erie (Campbell 1995). ONWRC, associated species of concern, and life

USFWS CHANGES TO THE REFUGE COMPLEX ECOSYSTEM

Information was obtained on available contem- by Eastern Clovis style points found with mammoth porary: 1) physical features, 2) land use and man- bones in the Great Lakes region. From 7,000 to agement, 3) hydrology and water quality, and 4) 2,500 BP, Ancient Boreal Hunters occupied the vegetation communities of the ONWRC region, spe- Great Lakes region building temporary settlements cifically for lands within the refuge complex. These along rivers for the winter and developing wooden data help chronicle the history of land and ecosystem and stone tools. During the Early Woodland Period changes at and near the refuge complex from the pre- (2,500 to 1,300 BP), people began farming, making settlement period and provide perspective on when, ceramics, and initiated the building of ceremonial how, and why alterations have occurred to ecological mounds (Hidalgo 2001). Over time native people processes in the ONWRC region. Data on changes in began building base camps near water resources, physical features and land use/management of the extraction sites near food resources, and improving region are available (e.g., from unpublished refuge and diversifying weapons and tools. Plant foods annual narrative reports, U.S. Department of Agri- began to be more important with movements culture data and records, hydrology data, surveys, becoming more seasonal in nature. By the Late etc.), however, detailed maps of the temporal Archaic Period, native people were cultivating dynamics of specific locations of historical vegetation plants, becoming more logistical in camp locations, communities within the larger Great Black Swamp and beginning to participate in mortuary ceremoni- and coastal wetlands are limited (see preceding alism. By the Late Woodland Period (1,100 to 350 plant and animal community discussion). This BP) the Red Ocher people inhabited northern Ohio. HGM report is not intended to provide a detailed They utilized copper to create weapons and estab- comprehensive account of all of ecosystem changes lished unique burial rituals containing ceremonial in the ONWRC region, but a summary of certain knives and powdered red ocher among other things important information is provided in the following within their grave sites in ridges or pits (Hidalgo sections along with references to more complete and 2001). The Sandusky area was a significant area for specific information. the Indians as many of the major trail routes inter- sected in this area including the Great Trail, Shore trail, and Mahoning trail (Sedgwick and Kroll 2010). Settlement and Another trail existed along the Maumee River, called Early Land Use Changes the Maumee-Wabash Trail connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi drainages (Kaatz 1955). Native people first occupied northwestern Ohio By 1655, the Erie and Fort Ancient people that about 11,000 to 13,000 years BP when the Lake Erie occupied the region were driven out by the Iroquois, shoreline was approximately 30 to 40 meters lower and the area was subsequently occupied by the in elevation than at the present time (Waffen 2011). Wyandot along with other tribes during war times These native people had a highly mobile lifestyle (Ohio Historical Society, no publication date). that depended on local foraging in area forests and Early expeditions by La Salle who canoed on wetlands with some big game hunting as evidenced Lake Erie in 1679 along with French missionary, 45 46 Heitmeyer, et al.

Father Hennepin, helped claim the OWNRC region in the area after 1849 with the population growing for France (Conrey et al. 1943, Sedgwick and Kroll quickly as railroads were constructed and drainage 2010). Few permanent camps were created as of the swamp continued (Cayton 2002, Kaatz 1955). French trappers moved into the area, since they Settlement of the ONWRC region increased through followed the methods of the Indian trappers who improvement of the Maumee-Western Reserve road tended to move over a wide area. A narrow strip of in 1839. Large tracts of timber in the Great Black land along the Maumee River was the only naturally Swamp were harvested for shipbuilding and pro- available agricultural area as the Great Black duction of black salts or lye with some sugar maples Swamp was immediately adjacent to it and extended left standing for the production of sugar. east to the Portage River (Fig. 3). Indian villages The Erie Canal was completed in 1825 and ran were scattered along the Maumee River with small about 363 miles, connecting Lake Erie to the Hudson cornfields present in the narrow band of fertile land. River in New York facilitating exchanges with the Subsequent European settlements mirrored these ports to the East (Cayton 2002, Langbein 1976). The locations as travel across the regional swamp lands Wabash-Erie Canal and Maumee-Erie Canal were was almost impossible (Kaatz 1955). The Battle of completed by 1833 linking Cincinnati and Toledo Fallen Timbers in 1794 led to the Treaty of Green- and providing a continuous water route to Lake ville and opened small areas of the Maumee River Erie. By 1870 transportation of timber to Lake Erie Valley to settlers. Further treaties through 1817, was further facilitated by construction of the Ward in which the Indians ceded lands to the U.S. gov- Canal in the eastern portion of Lucas County, which ernment, continued to support increased settlement in turn deforested the region by 1900 to only 10% of along the Maumee River (Kaatz 1955). The first its previous land cover (Conrey et al. 1943, Cayton settlements in the area occurred between 1809 2002). Many other drains and canals connected to and 1817 in Port Clinton on the Sandusky Bay and the Ward Canal allowed water to be pumped from Maumee on the Maumee River at the site of a former large tracts of marshland (Conrey et al. 1943). Origi- British fort. Portions of Ottawa County were owned nally, miles of ditches were created to carry water by the Connecticut Western Reserve, an area termed from tile drains. Large tile drains were later placed the “Firelands” because the area was initially settled in many of these ditches and backfilled. In effect the by people from Connecticut and New England along Great Black Swamp was mostly drained and cleared with those shipwrecked on a boat from Scotland that and converted to agricultural use in the short period had been displaced by fires (Paschall et al. 1928). from 1850 to 1900 (Kaatz 1955). Settlement within northwestern Ohio lagged behind Agricultural production in the ONWRC region other regions due to the influence of the War of 1812 in the early 1900s consisted of grain and livestock and the “slow removal” of the Indian population until farming with corn produced on drained swamp- the mid-1820s (Kaatz 1955). lands. The region came to be known as part of the The first “Black Swamp Road” was established ‘Corn Belt’ and continued to be productive into the in 1827 to connect settlers along the Maumee and the 20th century (Kaatz 1955). Wheat was originally Sandusky rivers and to promote travel west (Kaatz important but was replaced by oats during World 1955). The road was generally at least partly flooded War I. Many lands were utilized for hay production. for much of the year, and even when not flooded, it Sugar beets and potatoes along with tomatoes and was muddy and travel was difficult if not impos- sweet corn are the major vegetable crops with fruit sible. The first settlers hunted and fished, practicing orchards occurring mainly along a narrow belt near subsistence farming in small areas. Toledo was the Maumee River (Conrey et al. 1943) and east of established on the site of Fort Recovery (Conrey et Sandusky. Between 70-90 percent of the area that al. 1943) with Cincinnati growing into the largest was previously the Great Black Swamp was cropped village north of New Orleans by 1850. Early farmers farmland by 1930, and represented the highest pro- first used wooden under-drains to help drain swamp- portion of planted farmland in the state at the time lands until locally sourced “swamp clay” was used to (Kaatz 1955). produce “clay tiles”(made in factories of the area) that In addition to agriculture, other historic were laid in extensive field trench networks of cleared commerce activities in the ONWRC region included swamplands and low-lying agricultural lands (Kaatz local extraction of oil and natural gas, which were 1955). A large influx of German settlers appeared found in the region in the 1880s, but were quickly HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 47 exhausted by the early 1900s. Muskrat farming from coastal wetlands into the lake in an attempt increased in the early 1900s in marshes along the to drain and farm them (Conrey et al. 1943). Aerial Lake Erie coast (Paschall et al. 1928). Agriculture photos from unpublished refuge annual narrative and industries including fruit farming, tourism, reports indicate that remnants of coastal wetlands and quarrying of limestone, dolomite, and gypsum and very small remnants of the Great Black Swamp became important. Regional commercial fishing was forest along with farmlands were part of initial influential in Lake Erie, and to some degree in coastal acquisition of the ONWR complex (Fig. 26). Approxi- wetlands, rivers, and estuaries, but this industry mately only 10% of historic marshlands existed in declined as pollution of Lake Erie negatively affected the region at the time of the Ottawa NWR acqui- desired native fish species (Sparling 1965). sition. This consistent prolonged water management in duck club wetlands eventually transformed the once diverse open water-emergent marshes into Refuge Establishment and monotypic stands of cattails and supplanted native Development History phragmites, bur-reed, and other emergent species diversity and community interspersion (unpublished A detailed account of the acquisition and man- refuge annual narrative reports, Campbell 1995, agement history of the various ONWRC units is Lowden 1967, Sedgwick and Kroll 2010). summarized in various documents (Campbell 1995, The newly established Ottawa NWR contained USFWS 2000, Gerlach 2016, USFWS 2016), and a complex pattern of roads, dikes, canals, and ditches unpublished refuge annual narrative reports through inherited from prior owners. During the acquisition 2004 (Table 2). A brief account of some major events negotiation period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, and developments is provided below. most remnant woodlots on eventual refuge lands were Ottawa NWR was established in 1961 following harvested by owners prior to the refuge taking over gradual acquisition of many small hunting club and control. Wetlands on the new refuge were managed agricultural land tracts (Campbell 1995). A large within existing wetland/duck club impoundments, portion of the refuge had formerly been owned and while other lands were farmed or left idle. Many early operated as duck hunting clubs and acquisition of ditches and levees were in bad repair or non-func- specific land parcels for inclusion in the new refuge tional at the time of refuge establishment. The 1964 was gradual and sometimes difficult (Campbell Master Plan developed for Ottawa NWR (USFWS 1995). The proposed refuge, originally to be called 1964) sought to create a system of wetland impound- the Erie NWR, was approved in 1959, with land ments with levee and water-control infrastructure acquisition accelerated in 1960 when a key part to buffer coastal wetlands from encroachment of the of the proposed refuge area, Pintail Marsh, was lake and to promote migration, breeding, nesting, threatened to be purchased by Horizon Enterprises and brood rearing habitat for waterfowl. Initially and converted into a real estate and marina devel- eight wetland impoundments were proposed, two opment. In addition to Pintail Marsh, the refuge to create seasonally flooded “moist-soil” habitats to acquired and incorporated nine other hunting clubs. produce waterfowl foraging resources and the other The original intent of acquiring these properties six to create more permanently flooded emergent was primarily to provide waterfowl habitat and to marsh, specifically for nesting waterfowl habitat. preserve remnant Lake Erie coastal wetlands. The Approximately 2,000 acres of croplands were present eventual Ottawa NWR boundary would encompass on original Ottawa NWR properties and these fields almost all lands between the state owned Metzger’s were put into a share-cropping program for production and Magee Marsh areas. of corn, buckwheat, alfalfa, and other grasses. Much of the local marshland and creeks that In the first 20 years of Ottawa NWR man- historically emptied into Lake Erie, including the agement, severe storms caused major damage Ottawa NWR properties, had been substantially to refuge infrastructure in at least half of those altered during settlement of the area mainly through years (e.g., 1966, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, forest clearing and many drainage projects. Drained 1979, 1980, and 1982; unpublished refuge annual marshlands in the ONWRC region, especially around narrative reports; Fig. 27). These events typically the Cedar Creek area, were referred to as the “pump caused extensive flooding of inland marsh areas and lands”, a reference to the extensive pumping of water reduced emergent and moist-soil vegetation and food 48 Heitmeyer, et al.

Table 2. Chronology of major wetland and habitat management and development activities on the ONWRC 1962-2004 (from unpublished refuge annual narrative reports). Year Location Development Activities 1962 Crane Creek Club Marsh Breaks in Dike (Tract 23) 1963 Refuge wide Rip-rapped 1/2 mile of dike Repaired beaches in dikes 5 dugouts were created Installed 2 new power plants One mile of dike reinforced and reshaped 1964 Refuge wide Replaced two engines for pumps and repaired several others Installed 3 water control structure tubes, 6 pressure (flap) gates Rip-rapped around 20 tubes and pumps Reshaped and seeded 2 miles of dike 1965 Pool 1 and 2 Rehabilitation of the dike Pool 5 Attempted to rehabilitate the dike but did not work Refuge wide Four tubes with water control structure gates installed 2 miles of dikes repaired and seeded; started gravelling More dugouts created in connectiong with dike repair Headquarters Retaining wall completed to help hold lawn in place 1966 Cedar Point Refuge; Pool 3 Lakeshore dike damage due to spring wind storm wave action Pool 1 Tube installed to connect Pool 1 with Magee Marsh (Crane Creek Wildlife Experiment Station); fish screen with frame installed to prevent carp re-infestation Pools 4 and 5 Attempted to rehabilitate the dike but did not work Pool 8 Repaired beaches in dikes Goose pen 250 ft of 18 in tubes installed Crane Creek 1,000 ft of dike rip-rapped Refuge wide 200 ft of 18 in tubes with pressure gates installed in dikes for better water control; 200 ft of 36 in tubes with lift gates installed to receive water from Magee Marsh 2 miles of dikes gravelled 500 ft of wood sheathing used to plug gaping holes in dikes and form cribs for earthen fill 3 pipe gates fabricated and installed 1967 Pools 2 and 3 Dike rehabilitated including 3 miles in Pool 2 and 2.4 miles in Pool 3 Pools 1 and 2 3 water control structures were installed; inclulded 2 structures that were single tube and gate for interior control and one 3 way structure for water between the pools

Crane Creek Earth and steel jetty installed at mouth to keep creek open for free passage of water from and into Lake Erie Headquarters Borrow pit enlarged and shaped to make a better display pond Demonstration area Restore a small marsh and allow flooding of 15 ac of cropland Refuge wide 160 ft of 36 " gated tubes installed between Magee Marsh and refuge pools to receive water from state owned marsh pump Installed 150 ft of 18 in tubes 1968 Pools 2 and 6 Rehabilitation of the dike including 2 miles in Pool2 with 3 new watercontrol structures and 1/2 mile dike in Pool 6 Pools 4 and 5 Breaches in dikes Cedar Point and Darby Marsh Rehabilitation of dikes including 6 miles at Cedar Point and 3/4 mile at Darby along Lake Erie Job Corp Demo area Stabilization of 9 ac of borrow pit, restoration of dikes on the small marsh Refuge wide One pump repaired and new one installed to improve operation of marsh and agricultural areas One mile ditch created Installed/replaced 5,400 ft of tile to improve drainage in fields 1969 Cedar Point Dike damaged during spring wind/rain storm; repaired Pool 8 Dike further damaged Refuge wide $1.5 million work of damage to dikes during the July storm Drainage improvement by installing one new pump and 90 ft of culvert 1970 Cedar Point 1/2 mile of dike rip-rapped Darby 1/4 mile of ditch bank and dike rip-rapped Refuge wide 7 agricultural and marsh pumps repaired along with 5 water control structures 1971 Pool 1 Dike Rebuilt HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 49

Table 2, continued 1971 Year Location Development Activities Farm unit 7 Repair of 3/4 mile of north dike 1972 Refuge wide All but 2 impoundments have breached levees 1973 Refuge wide All dikes severly damaged by wave action with Cedar Point receiving brunt of November 13th storm 1974 F8 Flood water discharge tube installed on east dike; dike repair along west side F12 Dike repair along west side Tank Ditch Cleaned out with dragline 1975 Pool 1 Erosion of dike along Creek Creek and dike adjacent to State's west pool Darby 50% of lake front dike non-existent; 30 ac acquired for soil to rebuild the dike F7, F8, F10, Pool 1 Dike repairs to various portions 1976 Pool 1 Repair of dike adjacent to Magee Marsh Unit 8 Poorly placed flood drain removed and replaced Darby Installation of 130 ft of 24 in corrugated metal pipe with structures at 3 locations with additional riprap of interior dikes Black Swamp woods and Dikes north of these areas were capped by dragline to elevate them to prevent Headquarters flooding Refuge wide Continued erosion of dikes 1977 MSU 5 Rehabilitation of one mile of dike around east end; cleaned out north/south interior ditches and rebuilt dike breached; north/south dike and a portion of the lower east/west dike was rebuilt as a low profile dike to allow some flooding for short periods; ditch turned out much wider, deeper, and silt-filled than anticipated Krause Road Partially completed rehabiliation of 3/4 mile on east side; widened and deepened the south side ditch which will become the south dike of proposed MSU 7 Cedar Point Installation of 2 water control structures which permit automatic draining of the marsh when the level of Lake Erie is low enough for gravity discharge 1978 Pool 1 Rehabilitation of 4200 ft of west dike, excavated muck from 1700 ft of ditch and seeded 14,000 m of dike slopes and berm Pool 7 YACC project rip-rapping along south side Refuge wide YACC project including grading, dicke construction, road surfacing and installation of culverts and holding tanks 1979 Pool 1 Repaired west dike; uprotected portions damaged again but repaired Pool 2 Cut, shape, and fill west and north diles along with grass seeding, road surfacing, and rock protection for creekside dike slopes Pool 3 Borrow area established and breaks in lakefront dike closed Frederick Ditch 2200 ft of ditch cleaned and a 60" corrugated metal pipe and flood gate to appease private residents that are flooded when the lake backs up in the ditch MSU 3 3000 ft of east side ditch cleaned Farm Unit 8A Converted to a MSU; constructed 200 ft of dike and elevated an existing road along 600 ft on the south side Farm Unit 7C Initiated work to convert this unit to a MSU; 900 ft of dike constructed along east side

1980 MSU 5 Reparied dike and elevated one foot MSU 3, 4, 5, and 6 Construction of a concrete 3 way pumping station with 7 sluice gates and intake/discharge tubes to provide both pumping and draining for 700 ac; construction and rehabilitation of 1.5 miles of ditches and dikes along the south boundary of units

Pools 2 and 3 Completed dike along the creek and lake in these units MSU 4 and 5 Construction of a 1/2 mile of low level dike to separate the units Cedar Point Pheasant Farm Cut hole in east side dike to drain and installed a new tube and slide gate 1981 MSU 4 and 5 Attached flap gates to structures between the units MSU 5 Started building a low level dike Frederick Ditch Installed a 60 in culvert to allow for a turnaround Radar Ditch Extended 1600 ft of dike along ditch, excavated ditch, cut and shaped two dikes and two water control structures including one structure that has a automatic control for daily water fluctuations (projec to stop hydraulic action of Lake Erie on dikes and to provide water control for 2 adjacent pools) Pool 1 Rip-rapped dike bordering Crane Creek Pools 1 and 2 Attached flap gates to structures between the units MSUs Dug out field tiles under new dikes 1982 Refuge wide April flood caused damage to dikes in 15 locations, no control in Pool 3 MSU 3 Reparied dikes 50 Heitmeyer, et al.

Table 2, continued 1982 Year Location Development Activities MSU 7A and 8B Constructed 2400 ft of low level dikes Darby Pool 4 Installed a flapgate on a 48 in pipe Tank Ditch Cleaned out 5000 ft and rip-rapped 1000 ft MSU 8B Flap gate added to existing tube at northwest corner of the unit; installed a tube and flapgate at the southwest corner and added a new screwgate structure 1983 Pool 4 Construction started but not completed MSU 3 Repaired dike along Veler Rd, patched the north and west dikes and raised them one foot MSU 4 and 5 Repaired common dike Darby Installed an 18 in tube with flapgate on south dike MSU 8A Installed an 18 in tube with wooden crib, catwalk, and flapgate MSUs Added a barrier structure to the new pump to reduce force of water on cement walls 1984 Cedar Point Ice out in the spring caused dike damage MSU 5 Temporary repair of north dike; rip-rapped banks of south and wast banks MSU 4 Rip-rapped east side and south side of the pump ditch Pool 4 Dike construction; fill for dike was taken from an adjacent borrow pit just inside the dike creating a 8 to 10 ac hole, 35-40 ft deep Crane Creek and Tank Ditch Replacement of bridges and installation of new culverts MSU 4 and 5 A 36 in culvert was lengthened by 20 ft in the main pump ditch under the common dike 1985 MSU 5 and Headquarter Pool Minor damage to dikes repaired

Refuge wide Erosion of all interior dikes Refuge wide Built a temporary dam to prevent flooding of quarters Pool 3 Temporary closing structure installed and removed later MSU 7A and 7B Repaired about 600 ft of dike Pool 4 Dike construction completed in 1984 was washed away, due to temporary structure holding water back from the borrow pit being taken out of the Tank Ditch allowing water to overtop the new levee MSU 4 and 5 Rehabilitation of one mile of dike on north side along the Tank Ditch; approximately 3000 ft of filter fabric mat with rip-rapp and soil put over it Pool 2 2800 ft of damaged dike repaired Entrance Pool Large washout of dike repaired 1986 Pool 4 Dike project completed Stange Road Bridge repaired Pool 2B and 2C 5200 ft of dike repaired MSU 3 and 4 1/3 mile of dike repaired Entrance Pool 800 ft of dike repaired and culverts and flapgates repaired in northwest corner MSU 8B Low level dike repaired, culverts and flapgates replaced in northwest corner, and two pipes replaced 1987 Pool 1 Water control structures in southeast corner completely silted in and needs to be replaced; northeast and south dikes 70 to 90% lost to erosion with half of southwest corner lost Pool 2A, 2B, 2C Dikes repaired and pump channel draglined Entrance Pool Flapgate installed on a structure MSU 3 West dike raised and widened 3000 ft; north dike raised and widened Crane Creek Ice dam formed in January, dragline removed some of the ice to open a channel and release water Radar Ditch Culvert replaced under the road with an 18 in corrugated metal pipe with a flapgate 1988 Show Pool Water control structure repaired 1989 Pool 1 Reconstruct north and south dikes and replace structures on southeast corner Pool 3 Repaired south dike and installed new structures Show Pool Completed work on north and east dikes Mini Marsh Completed pump station MSU 3, 4, 5 Pump broke but repaired MSUs Worked on west and north dikes of the units, added filter fabric, riprap, and topsoil MSU 5 Repaired north dike and water control structure MSU 7A Completed water control structures to allow water to fluctuate with the lake along with the new pump station MSU 8A and 8B Completed construction of pump station at the southwest corner of the units 1989

HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 51

Table 2, continued Year Location Development Activities Cedar Point Pheasant Farm Renovated drainage canal between units and Pool 1 Cedar Point Pool 1 New pump installed and repaired 3.2 miles of dikes and added a new water control structure Darby Cleaned main ditch, installed 2 water control structures and added riprap on lakefront dike; added a new pump station 1990 Pool 6 East and south dikes severly eroded so the unit fluctuates with Lake Erie Mini Marsh Completed dikes Mini Marsh and MSU 7 3500 tons of riprap added on exterior dike MSUs Ditch Main ditch rehabilitated; concrete block riser lowered to allow additional water to flow into the intake piper during low water periods MSU 3 North and west dike construction MSU 6 Repaired dikes MSU 7A and 7B Completed north dike with a new water control structure in the northwest corner of 7B MSU 8B Water control structue on the south dike removed and another placed west of it Cedar Point Pool 1 New pump structure installed Cedar Point Pool 1 and 2 Ditch cleaned Darby Repaired dikes and installed 2 pumps Farm Unit 12 600 ft of dike created in the corner of the unit to creat a 10 to 12 ac wetland 1991 MSU 6 Started building a new dike inside of the old one Mini Marsh Completed dike MSU 6 Cleaned, resloped, and rip-rapped county line ditch along north side of unit Lindsey/Limestone Ditch/Dike Cleaned on east side and rip-rapped to prevent erosion from MSU 8A

1992 No narrative 1993 MSU 8A Continued repair of dikes; 18 in culvert and screwgate installed from Lindsey/Limestone moist soil unit MSU 3 36 in culvert with screwgate installed in southwest corner Unit LL (Ottawa) Unit completed Darby Pool 4 Dike construction Darby Pool 3 Rehabilitation of south dike; spoils from 1992 work were leveled and reshaped into rough dikes Farm ditches Cleaned Pool 1 Water control structure turned into a pump station MSU 7B Dike rip-rapped MSU 3 and 4 Drain tiles removed Stange and Krause Roads Culvert replaced at intersection MSU 3 Screwgates repaired and protective mound placed in front of structure Unit FU 6 West dike rebuilt and raised to prevent water flooding nearby private property FU 12 Repaired pump station FU 2, MSU 7A, Mini Marsh, Pumps rebuilt MSU 8A, MSU 8B 1994 Metzger Marsh Began construction of 7700 ft dike to protect marsh from the lake MSU 6 Connected moist soil pump MSU 3 and 4 Removed 100 tiles from 7.5 miles of dike FU 10A Created a dike in a portion of the unit along with a stoplog structure and 12 in screwgate MSU 8A Completed renovation of dike and ditch system Cedar Poin Pheasant Farm Created a sand barrier to block drainage ditch that was breached 1995 Metzger Marsh Dike completed MS Pump Ditch and FU 6 Culvert and screwgate installed Cedar Point Pheasant Farm Dike renovation started on southwest and east sides 1996 Metzger Marsh Continued work on pump facility Cedar Point Pheasant Farm Continued work with completion of dirt work on inside of east dike and riprap; installed new water control structures 1997 No info 1998 Woodies Roost 1.25 miles of dike constructed; material draglined from adjacent ditch; resloping of both sides with rip rap MSU 7C and Crane Creek Rebuilt 1800 ft of dike Darby Unit 4 Repair and improved southwest dike 52 Heitmeyer, et al. 1998 Table 2, continued Year Location Development Activities MSU 8B Screwgate replaced 1999 Woodies Roost 1500 ton of riprap put on interior of north dike Stange Rd/Lindsey/Limestone 3000 ft of ditch cleaned ditch Stange Rd Ditch New 84 in concrete culvert crossing installed to allow access to Unit 6A on south side of Crane Creek 2000 MSU 7A, Lindsey/Limestone Dredged ditches to feed the MSU 8B pump ditch, Rader Ditch, MSU 8B pump MSUs Added new riprap to inside of south dike and 1/2 mile of north side of the ditch 2001 Diefenthaler Restored 9 ac of wetland that lies adjacent to Crane Creek 2002 MSU 8B South dike was pushed up next to Krause Rd, eliminating part of the refuge ditch; new ditch was dug on south side of Krause Rd to replace it 2003 Restored 75 ac of wetlands Pool 9 Rebuilt a dike along the north side 2004 Krause Road Dike expanded Show Pool Structure installed and an observation pier MSU 8A New screwgate installed on a pipe

production. Following flood events, only temporary Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) provide water repairs and improvements were made to levees, management and filtration. The 900-acre Crane roads, ditches, and water-control structures until a Creek Estuary that runs through Ottawa NWR is large construction fund was granted to the refuge directly connected to Lake Erie, and its water levels, in 1978. Reconstruction of damaged infrastructure communities and other characteristics are entirely was slow to start given the continued storms, but driven by Lake Erie water levels. major improvements began in the mid-1980s (Table The lands in Cedar Point NWR were gifted to 2). Eight moist-soil units with some subsections the USFWS in 1964 by the Cedar Point Shooting were constructed during the 1980s, which converted Club, via the North American Wildlife Foundation, some farm lands to intensively managed areas for with the provision that the lands not be used as a waterfowl foraging habitat. Since then, water- public park, campground or picnic area. The history control structures, ditches and water conveyance and management of the former Cedar Point Club is canals, and pumping stations have been built or well documented in Campbell (1995). Historically, modified to improve water-control capabilities in the entire Cedar Point property was an open lake- wetland impoundments. connected coastal wetland and included the historic Ottawa NWR currently contains the original Wolf Creek confluence. The coastal wetlands were Lake Erie shoreline properties and the more recently buffered by an extensive sand beach/dune corridor acquired expansion areas of the Deifenthaler, Roe, up to 250 feet wide along Lake Erie (Sears 1916). Koontz, Hemminger, and Boss tracts. Collectively, Inland marsh areas merged with the once extensive Ottawa NWR now contains 26 separate wetland swamp forest that extended inland; the last swamp impoundments that total 2,450 acres. Wetland areas west of Yondota Road were cleared in 1961 impoundments are managed through connections to (Campbell 1955). The main sand spit extends promi- Lake Erie via pumps, gravity-flow structures, and nently into Lake Erie and is referred to as “Little ditches and by similar connection to the Crane Creek Cedar Point.” In the early 1900s, modest dikes Estuary that bisects the refuge unit. Water-control were built along the Lake Erie shoreline to insulate structures include various pipes, gates, and pump marsh areas from frequent inundation and canals structures (Gerlach 2016), some with active pumped also were built through marsh areas. Storms in or diverted water flow and others that allow passive 1929 damaged outer dikes and subsequently those water movement between the units and Crane Creek that remained were enlarged and new ones were or Lake Erie proper. Eight pump stations also are built along the lake shoreline. A large pump station present that allow direct water inputs to some units. also was built near the mouth of Cooley Canal Two other pump stations, funded through the Great to manage the marsh. In 1941 the Toledo water HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 53

Figure 26. 1967 aerial photography of Field A in Pool 8, and Field B in Pool 7 on Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge showing cultivated crops, wood lots, and wetlands (from unpublished refuge annual narrative report, 1967). pumping station was built at the southeast corner of seawalls, dikes, and other infrastructure along of the Cedar Point Marsh and the club and the city southwestern Lake Erie has undoubtedly altered reached agreement on use of the pump station to regional hydrology and sediment transport along supply and manage club marsh levels. the shoreline and contributed to decreased beach Erosion of the outer beaches and dune barriers building processes (Herdendorf 1973). along Cedar Point has been a continual issue for the Cedar Point NWR currently contains three area (see e.g., Herdendorf 1973). Outer dikes and wetland impoundments, the large Pool 1 is 1,444 beach areas were frequently eroded and destroyed by acres and is among the largest contiguous coastal storms and high lake levels. The historical Lamb’s wetland complexes in the western basin of Lake Beach, gifted to the USFWS in 1980, and other beach Erie. Pool 1 has a pump on the east side point and area to the southeast have eroded and become part of a recently constructed fish passage structure along the lake in the Potter’s Pond area. The Little Cedar the northwest side of the lake. The pool contains the Point sandbar was almost completely washed away most extensive area of wild rice in Ohio (USFWS by 1990. Part of the inland movement of the barrier 2000). The other wetland impoundment units at sands may be part of natural shoreline migration Cedar Point do not have active water management on this lake point area, but widespread construction pumping capacity. The Pool 2 dikes have a history 54 Heitmeyer, et al.

acquired by the USFWS in 1966. In 1968 the USFWS exchanged Navarre Marsh for the Darby Unit property. The Darby Unit was originally purchased by Toledo Edison in the early 1960s as a site for the construction of a nuclear power plant, but its location proved unfeasible. Subsequently Toledo Edison (now First Energy) exchanged Darby for the Navarre Marsh property, and they started construction in 1970 on the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station adjacent to the remnant Navarre Marsh. First Energy then entered into a 50-year agreement with the USFWS to co-manage the area as a marsh, however the USFWS lacks control over station facil- ities, and infrastructure and water management is passive. Currently water can only be pumped out of wetland impoundments, which limit composition and structure of vegetation and resources and have created mostly dense emergent marsh conditions. The lake shorelines near and at Darby and Navarre are mostly armored, which helps sustain beach areas to some degree (ODNR 2012). The Navarre marsh is adjacent to the Toussaint River and historically likely had some periodic connection between the marsh and high river flows. The Darby property includes historic coastal wetland areas along LaCarpe Creek, and formerly was owned by hunting clubs. Past management at the Darby Unit has been partly constrained by its location and size, which is bounded by housing developments, the city of Port Clinton, private hunting club lands, and the Camp Perry National Guard Station. The Darby unit has four marsh impoundment areas managed with a pump station and ditch that delivers water to the impoundments. The eight small tracts recently acquired and added to the ONWRC within its expansion boundary Figure 27. Aerial photographs of flooding and damage to are individually isolated (except for the combined levees and water-control structures after a severe storm in Adams-Price tracts) along riparian corridors of Turtle 1969 at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge (from unpublished Creek, Toussaint River, Portage River and Little refuge annual narrative report, 1969). Portage River. These include the Schneider, Helle, Gaeth/Kurdy, Knorn, Burmeister, Price, Blausey, of damage and failure that has prohibited active and Adams tracts. Habitats on these tracts currently management of this marsh area. Non-impoundment are mixed and include small wetland areas, forest, areas at Cedar Point include open Lake Erie waters S/S, and wet prairie/meadow. The Blausey tract is and the Potter’s Pond site that is open and directly the only location with managed wetland impound- connected to Lake Erie water levels. The refuge ments and this site includes a pump station and fish also contains two rare cottonwood beach/dune areas; passage ladder developed as part of the GLRI project the Lamb’s Woods being a rare remnant of this in 2012. The other small tracts contain various community type. passively managed wetlands that are managed with The Navarre Marsh unit of ONWRC was small water-control structures and typically receive owned by the Navarre Shooting Club until it was water only from onsite precipitation or runoff. HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 55 Refuge Water and Habitat Changes A

Lake Erie is the primary source of water available Cedar Point Unit for wetland management on Lake Erie ONWRC lands and its levels and water quality are determined by regional climate, land and water use, and devel- Pheasant Farm Ottawa NWR Units Unit Name opments throughout its wide CP Pool 1 CP Entrance drainage area. Pump stations CP Fishing Area CP Pool 1 on various refuge units draw CP Pool 2 Potter's Pond Cedar Point Roads water from the lake and its Ditch estuaries and tributary rivers Lake Erie Lamb's Woods Pheasant Farm and have the capacity to flood CP Pool 2 Point Woods and dry various wetland Potter's Pond

impoundments. Currently, 0 0.25 0.5 ± Miles ONWRC has four large pump stations capable of pumping Figure 28. Management units on Ottawa NWR Complex are: A) Cedar Point NWR units; 2.5 million gallons per day B) Ottawa NWR units; C) Navarre, Schneider, Gaeth/Kurdy, Blausey units; D) Helle (gpd); these are located on units; and E) Darby, Knorn, Price, Adams, and Burmeister units Cedar Point NWR, Darby, Navarre Marsh, and Blausey units. A total of 17 pump stations of all sizes and from 1975-2011. These conditions stimulated the 50 water-control structures are present throughout extensive HABs growth in Lake Erie during 2011 the refuge complex. This infrastructure serves 93 (Ohio Department of Agriculture et al. 2013). If lake managed wetland areas, including about 70 miles temperatures and spring precipitation frequencies of dikes (Fig. 28a-e). This extensive wetland man- and intensities increase in the future, these conditions agement impoundment system has been a major will also promote HAB growth, leading to continued part of past management programs for the refuge oxygen depletions and toxic byproducts of HABs. complex, which has been the source of recurring Direct impacts of HABs to wildlife that use maintenance and management issues due to storms, coastal Lake Erie habitats are unclear since HAB high lake levels, and seiches. effects to wetland communities may be indirect or Many factors affect water quality on ONWRC, less visible, possibly manifesting in the form of especially for Lake Erie waters, which is influenced toxic byproduct exposure through hydrologic condi- by agriculture, industry, municipalities, wastewater tions in the lake, or by broader-scale changes in the treatment plants, invasive species, and climate ecosystem as a whole. Regardless of whether or not change throughout the Lake Erie drainage. A review algal overgrowth is comprised of toxic species, threats of water quality on the ONWRC is provided in Kurey to waterfowl and other wildlife on the ONWRC are (1997), Banda (2014), and Gerlach (2016). Major great because of shifts in the lake ecosystem. Decom- water quality concerns include high sediment and position of excessive algal biomass leads to depleted nutrient loading, turbidity, low oxygen levels, and oxygen levels in the water column, creating hypoxic high dissolved reactive phosphorous levels (Ohio conditions. Moreover, the growth of algal mats on Department of Agriculture et al. 2013). Phosphorus the surface creates a barrier to light penetration, and sediment loads are especially critical factors depriving submerged aquatic vegetation and other aiding the rise of harmful algal blooms (HAB). organisms of UV radiation, thereby reducing species Nearly the highest discharge and dissolved reactive diversity and the quantity and quality of habitat phosphorus loading was recorded Feb-June 2011, and food resources available for fish, invertebrates, compared to any other amounts observed for the same waterbirds, and other wildlife. Eutrophic conditions time interval at the Maumee River Waterville gage in Lake Erie have caused a shift in this region from 56 Heitmeyer, et al.

Ottawa NWR Units MS 8a Exposure to toxins such Unit Name MS 8b Borrow Pit MS Ditch B Boss MS LL as microcystin and anatoxin is Butternut Metzger Marsh Crane Creek MiniMarsh of particular concern in Lake Developed Ottawa roads Ottawa Unit Ditch Pool 1 Dogwood Landing Pool 2a Erie. Direct impacts of algal EP Woods Pool 2b Metzger Marsh Entrance Pool Pool 2c toxin contamination to wildlife FU 10 Pool 3 FU 2 Woods Pool 9 borrow Pool 3 FU 9 Pool 9 east can induce liver damage Goose Pen Pool 9 woods Grimm Prairie-Deifenthaler wetland Radar Ditch HU 6 Rail unit or degeneration of nervous HU 93 Raptor Alley Hemminger Roe systems (Friend and Francis MS 3 MS 4 MS 5 Kontz Show Pool Lake Erie/beach Shrub MS 2 north South Woods 1999, National Wildlife Fed- MS 2 south Stange prairie MS 3 Veler Ditch eration 2013). Research on HU 6 Crane Creek Pool 1 MS 4 Woodies Roost East MS 6 Pool 2b MS 5 Woodies Roost Sedge Roe Pool 2a MS 6 Woodies Roost South the specific effects of HABs to MS 7a Woodies Roost West Crane Creek MS 8a Pool 2c MS 7b Woods-drive waterfowl and other wetland- MS 7a 0 0.25 0.5 ± Miles MS 7b MS 8b dependent wildlife in the Lake Stange prairie Erie drainage is on-going, but

FU 10 algal toxin contamination has FU 9 been connected to illness and

Kontz death of great blue herons Kontz Ardea herodias Boss ( ), brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), and bald eagle (Hali- aeetus leucocephalus) in other Schneider N Pool 1 regions (National Wildlife N Pool 1

Schneider Unit Federation 2013). Mortality Navarre Unit cases in waterbirds caused by C freshwater algal toxins have been caused by ingestion of N Pool 2 contaminated water (Table Gaeth/Kurdy Unit 3), but other exposure pathways can include uptake N Pool 3 Toussaint River through food, and atmosphere exposure resulting from wind Ottawa NWR Complex Boundary Gaeth Kurdy coastal wetland Ottawa NWR Units Gaeth Kurdy roads and wave mixing during toxic Unit Name N Beach Ridge Blausey East N Pool 1 HAB events (Friend and Blausey Unit Blausey Prairie N Pool 2 Blausey West N Pool 3 Francis 1999). Blausey roads Navarre roads DB Intake canal Schneider In addition to surface Blausey West Developed Schneider roads water concerns, groundwater Ditch Toussaint River Gaeth Kurdy in the ONWRC region has

0 0.050.1 0.2 0.3 ± Miles documented high levels of strontium, aluminum, sulfate, Figure 28, continued. Management units on: a) Cedar Point NWR; b) Ottawa NWR; c) and arsenic. Converse to Navarre Marsh and the Schneider, Gaeth/Kurdy, and Blausey Units; d) Helle Unit, and e) degraded water quality factors, Darby, Knorn, Price, Adams, and Burmeister Units. the introduction of invasive zebra (Dreissena polymorpha) formerly more abundant walleye and yellow perch to and quagga (Dreissena rostriformis) mussels has actually now increased abundance of bass, sunfish, carp, and increased water clarity as these mussels filter large minnow (NOAA, GLERL). The physical structure amounts of water daily, altering availability of food of algal blooms has also been known to damage resources for a variety of aquatic species. fish gills and conditions created by HABs can lead In addition to active water management, other to an environment conducive to outbreaks of avian direct habitat management on ONWRC histori- botulism (Friend and Francis 1999, International cally has included physical manipulation of vege- Joint Commission 2014). tation through burning, mowing, tilling, planting, HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 57 and chemical treatments; planting agricultural crops, D buckwheat and millet, and Helle Unit various grasses and shrubs; limited forest management and harvest; and control of invasive species (unpublished refuge annual narrative Helle Toussaint River reports). Upon acquisition of Helle woods Ottawa NWR, sharecroppers farmed approximately 2000 acres mainly for soybeans Helle wetland and corn production. Red- Agelaius winged blackbirds ( Ottawa NWR Units phoeniceus) at times dep- Unit Name Helle Roads redated nearly 100% of the Helle Toussaint River Helle wetland corn produced by farmers on Helle woods Road 0 0.025 0.05 and off the refuge. Various ± Miles techniques were utilized to try and prevent complete loss of the crop including Ottawa NWR Units Unit Name E planting different varieties Adams Darby Unit Adams roads of corn and hazing birds. Burmeister D Pool 1 Over time planting of corn D Pool 1 D Pool 2 D Pool 4 was phased out and other D Pool 3 D Pool 4 crops were planted that ben- Darby ditch Darby east marsh efitted wildlife. Ultimately, Darby roads Knorn Unit Darby woods most farm fields have been Drusbacky Drusbacky roads transitioned into warm Knorn season grasslands, moist- Lake Erie/beach Price soil units, and forests. The Price roads Rusha Creek CCP (USFWS 2000) recom- Young east Young roads mended that the cooperative Young west farming program would 0 0.25 0.5 0.75 ± Miles be phased out by 2006 and Burmeister Unit currently no permittee farming is done on the

Price refuge complex. Price Unit Adams Unit Invasive plants have become widespread throughout Figure 28, continued. Management units on Ottawa NWR Complex are: A) Cedar Point ONWRC and the entire Great NWR units; B) Ottawa NWR units; C) Navarre, Schneider, Gaeth/Kurdy, Blausey units; D) Helle units; and E) Darby, Knorn, Price, Adams, and Burmeister units Lakes region with extensive stands of giant reed, purple loosestrife, flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus), communication with refuge staff). Biological controls reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinaceae), and including a beetle have been successful in reducing European frog-bit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae). the amount of purple loosestrife throughout the Integrated pest management plans have been complex. In addition to invasive plants, the invasive developed for the refuge complex (see Appendix C in zebra mussel introduced to the Great Lakes in 1988, USFWS 2016), and past control efforts have included is present throughout refuge waters. More recently chemical, mechanical, and biological methods quagga mussels have been found in the Lake Erie (unpublished refuge annual narratives and personal system. Originally from Russia, the zebra mussel is 58 Heitmeyer, et al.

Table 3. Cases and causes of wild bird mortality caused by algal toxins (from Friend and on the Cedar Point NWR. Francis 1999). Cyanobacterial toxins affect the Lake Erie ecosystem, while domoic acids, Like swamp forests, these saxitoxins, and brevetoxins are specific to marine environments. dune forests have reduced species diversity than in past periods with low regeneration, especially for cottonwood, because of altered lake and beach building and scouring sediment dynamics. In general, little active forest management has occurred for remnant forest patches on the refuge complex, but some reforestation has been attempted with direct seedling plantings. The National Wetland Inventory (NWI) classifies the majority of wetlands on ONWRC as “Fresh- a suspension feeder that can attach to almost any water Emergent” type (Fig. 29). The 1820 survey object including other living organisms. This mussel of T8 R15, sections 29-35, compared to current NWI has the ability to filter and clear the water, which wetland conditions indicates that wet prairies his- enhances the amount of light reaching the bottom of torically were interspersed with timbered areas in the lake and stimulates growth of nuisance benthic some refuge areas, but these sites now are emergent algae and also alters the availability of prey for marsh or developed areas (Figs. 3, 24, 29). Some many other species causing a cascade effect among NWI “Freshwater Forested/Shrub” wetlands still many trophic levels in addition to reducing oxygen exist within the four larger refuge complex areas levels, increasing water temperature, and increasing (Ottawa, Cedar Point, Navarre, Darby), while the macrophyte growth (Walton and Gotthardt, no pub- smaller, more recently acquired tracts have small lication date). areas designated as non-freshwater forested/shrub Forest habitats on ONWRC and the sur- (Fig. 29). rounding region have been widely drained and Another vegetation-based map, the National cleared and remnant communities are extremely Land Cover Data, classified most of ONWRC as small, fragmented, and have altered species compo- emergent herbaceous wetlands with several open sition from former times. Very few patches of the once water areas bounded by cultivated crops (Fig. 30). extensive Great Black Swamp community remain; a Habitat classification maps prepared for the refuge good example is the 10-acre woodlot on the Boss tract. complex depict varied community distribution, but Another, the 197-acre Continental Marsh area now maps are at a coarse scale and under represent MS-6 and the adjacent part of Crane Creek on Ottawa lake plain prairie and inclusions of habitats within NWR was cleared, drained and converted to farmland shrub and forest areas (Fig. 31). The majority of in the 1940s (Campbell 1995). The Boss Woods and the current vegetation communities are open water other small remnant forest areas now have little if any and emergent/submergent wetlands, with some ash and elm present because of the combined effects of wet meadow/prairie located along the southern and Dutch elm disease and the emerald ash borer. Recent western parts of Ottawa NWR, the northeast part of mortality in ash trees is especially extensive. Other the Darby complex (Young and Drusbacky units), the former swamp forest areas near ONWRC contain more southeast part of Blausey, and much of the Knorn dry-site species compared to the more water tolerant Unit along with a few locations on Blausey, Adams, former communities (Corace et al. 2011). A few small Price, and Knorn (Fig 31a-c). Some forested and remnant patches of coastal dune forest also remain on shrubland communities also exist on Ottawa NWR, the refuge complex, the largest being Lamb’s Woods Price, Burmeister, Schneider, Gaeth/Kurdy, and HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 59

NWI Wetlands Wetland Type Freshwater Emergent Wetland Freshwater Forested/Shrub Wetland Freshwater Pond Lake Riverine Ottawa NWR HGM Boundary

0 1 2 3 Miles ±

Figure 29. National Wetland Inventory wetland classification types for Ottawa NWR Complex and surrounding area.

Darby areas (Fig. 31b). Small remnant beach and Climate and Lake Erie Changes beach/dune forest habitats remain present at Cedar Point, Darby, and Navarre Marsh. Information on historical climate trends for the Past refuge annual narrative reports describe ONWRC are available from data at the Toledo climate many of the emergent wetlands units on the refuge station (Hutter 1952), and other analyses of regional complex as containing extensive stands of cattail climate change, and predictions, and impacts related while the moist-soil units are characterized as con- to Lake Erie water levels, temperatures, and water are taining a variety of annual and perennial plant summarized in the refuge WRIA (Gerlach 2016). Certain species such as smartweed, rice cutgrass (Leersia aspects of this information are summarized below: oryzoides), rushes, and sedges. Emergent stands on the refuge appear to have become dominated, often • The number of frost-free days has increased in monotypic stands, by cattail at the expense of since the early 1950s (USDA 2011), and fall and more formally abundant native phragmites, bulrush, spring temperatures have increased, fall freeze and bur-reed. Native wild rice also was formerly dates are later, and total frozen periods have extensive throughout the southwestern Lake Erie decreased (Jensen et al. 2007, Magnuson et al. marshes, but now is confined to small patches that 2000). do not seem to be expanding, and may in fact be con- • Average snow depth and consecutive days of tinually declining (Campbell 1995, Gottgens et al. snow have decreased. 1998, personal communication, refuge staff). The largest areas of wild rice in Ohio currently occur on • Days with greater than 1.25 inches of total Cedar Point NWR. precipitation have increased since the early 60 Heitmeyer, et al.

NLCD Land Cover Open Water Developed, Open Space Developed, Low Intensity Developed, Medium Intensity Developed, High Intensity Barren Land Deciduous Forest Evergreen Forest Shrub/Scrub Herbaceuous Hay/Pasture Cultivated Crops Woody Wetlands Emergent Herbaceuous Wetlands Ottawa NWR HGM Boundary

0 1 2 3 Miles ±

Figure 30. National land cover maps of the Ottawa NWR Complex region (data from USDA Data Gateway).

1950s and the frequency of precipitation growing season (frost-free) periods and events totaling 1-2.5 inches has increased annual ice-free periods on the lake. since 1970 (USDA 2011). • Lake Erie water temperatures have been • The ONWRC area has more frequent large increasing during summer as has corre- storm events and total days of rain (Andersen sponding annual evaporation rates (National et al. 2012). Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab- • Regional streams have increased average oratory (NOAA GLERL) ( 2012). and minimum discharges rather than higher annual peak flows from increased fall pre- • Lake Erie water levels were slightly above cipitation (Small et al. 2006). average from 1970 to 2000, but levels since have been consistent with average levels • Climate models predict the Great Lakes since 1918 (NOAA GLERL 2013). Surface region will generally become warmer and water elevation seems to be sensitive to drier in the summer and wetter in winter long-term changes in regional precipi- and spring (Hayhoe et al. 2010, Winkler et tation and high water levels have followed al. 2012). Average summer temperatures especially wet years, but with lower levels could increase by more than 3 degrees by following dry years. Water levels in the the end of the Century. lake are projected by most models to decline • Climate models predict decreases in average (Lofgren et al. 2002) and could drop by up number of snow days per year by the end of to 5 feet by the end of the Century (National the Century (Hayhoe et al. 2010) and longer Wildlife Federation 2013). HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 61

Refuge Boundary Beach Developed Emergent Forest Shrub Submergent Water Wet Prairie

Date Created: 1/7/2015 Date Revised: 1/7/2015 File Path: R:\Projects\09\0904\090401M_Master_GSA\64_OttawaHMP\GIS\MXD\for figures\20150104_Cedar_Point.mxd GIS Analyst: Rebecca.Norris Data Sources: ESRI Streets Basemap

Refuge Boundary Habitat Types B Emergent Beach Developed Forest Shrub Submergent Water Wet Prairie

This map and all data contained within are supplied as is with no warranty. Cardno, Inc. Habitat Classification expressly disclaims responsibility for damages or liability from any claims that may arise out of the use or misuse of this map. It is the sole Ottawa NWR - Miscellaneous Units ² responsibility of the user to determine if the data on this map meets the user’s needs. This map was 11181 Marwill Avenue, West Olive, MI 49460 USA not created as survey data, nor should it be used 0 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.2 Miles as such. It is the user’s responsibility to obtain Phone (+1) 616-847-1680 Fax (+1) 616-847-9970 proper survey data, prepared by a licensed www.cardnojfnew.com surveyor, where required by law. Project No. J090401M64 Date Created: 1/7/2015 Date Revised: 1/7/2015 File Path: R:\Projects\09\0904\090401M_Master_GSA\64_OttawaHMP\GIS\MXD\for figures\20150104_ottawa.mxd GIS Analyst: Rebecca.Norris Data Sources: ESRI Streets Basemap Figure 31. Ottawa NWR Complex contemporary habitat type distribution on: A) Cedar Point; B) Ottawa; C) Burmeister, Price, Adams; D) Navarre, Schneider, Gaeth-Kurdy, Blausey; E) Darby; F) Helle; G) Knorn (from USFWS 2016). 62 Heitmeyer, et al.

Refuge Boundary Beach Developed Emergent Forest Shrub Submergent Water Wet Prairie

This map and all data contained within are supplied as is with no warranty. Cardno, Inc. Habitat Classification expressly disclaims responsibility for damages or liability from any claims that may arise out of the use or misuse of this map. It is the sole Ottawa NWR - Burmeister, Price, and Adams Units ² responsibility of the user to determine if the data on this map meets the user’s needs. This map was 11181 Marwill Avenue, West Olive, MI 49460 USA not created as survey data, nor should it be used 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 Miles as such. It is the user’s responsibility to obtain Phone (+1) 616-847-1680 Fax (+1) 616-847-9970 proper survey data, prepared by a licensed www.cardnojfnew.com surveyor, where required by law. Project No. J090401M64 Date Created: 1/5/2015 Date Revised: 1/5/2015 File Path: R:\Projects\09\0904\090401M_Master_GSA\64_OttawaHMP\GIS\MXD\for figures\20150104_Price_Adams.mxd GIS Analyst: Rebecca.Norris Data Sources: ESRI Streets Basemap

Refuge Boundary D Habitat Types Beach Developed Emergent Forest Shrub Submergent Upland Water Wet Prairie

This map and all data contained within are supplied as is with no warranty. Cardno, Inc. Habitat Classification expressly disclaims responsibility for damages or liability from any claims that may arise out of the use or misuse of this map. It is the sole Ottawa NWR - Navarre, Schneider, Gaeth/Kurdy, Blausey Unit ² responsibility of the user to determine if the data on this map meets the user’s needs. This map was 11181 Marwill Avenue, West Olive, MI 49460 USA not created as survey data, nor should it be used 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 Miles as such. It is the user’s responsibility to obtain Phone (+1) 616-847-1680 Fax (+1) 616-847-9970 proper survey data, prepared by a licensed www.cardnojfnew.com surveyor, where required by law. Project No. J090401M64 Date Created: 1/6/2015 Date Revised: 1/7/2015 File Path: R:\Projects\09\0904\090401M_Master_GSA\64_OttawaHMP\GIS\MXD\for figures\20150104_navarre.mxd GIS Analyst: Rebecca.Norris Data Sources: ESRI Streets Basemap

Figure 31, continued. Ottawa NWR Complex contemporary habitat type distribution on: A) Cedar Point; B) Ottawa; C) Burmeister, Price, Adams; D) Navarre, Schneider, Gaeth-Kurdy, Blausey; E) Darby; F) Helle; G) Knorn (from USFWS 2016). HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 63

E Refuge Boundary Beach Developed Emergent Forest Shrub Submergent Water Wet Prairie

This map and all data contained within are supplied as is with no warranty. Cardno, Inc. Habitat Classification expressly disclaims responsibility for damages or liability from any claims that may arise out of the use or misuse of this map. It is the sole Ottawa NWR - Darby Unit ² responsibility of the user to determine if the data on this map meets the user’s needs. This map was 11181 Marwill Avenue, West Olive, MI 49460 USA not created as survey data, nor should it be used 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 Miles as such. It is the user’s responsibility to obtain Phone (+1) 616-847-1680 Fax (+1) 616-847-9970 proper survey data, prepared by a licensed www.cardnojfnew.com surveyor, where required by law. Project No. J090401M64 Date Created: 1/5/2015 Date Revised: 1/7/2015 File Path: R:\Projects\09\0904\090401M_Master_GSA\64_OttawaHMP\GIS\MXD\for figures\20150104_darby.mxd GIS Analyst: Rebecca.Norris Data Sources: ESRI Streets Basemap

Refuge Boundary Habitat Types Emergent Forest

This map and all data contained within are supplied as is with no warranty. Cardno, Inc. Habitat Classification expressly disclaims responsibility for damages or liability from any claims that may arise out of the use or misuse of this map. It is the sole Ottawa NWR - Helle Unit ² responsibility of the user to determine if the data on this map meets the user’s needs. This map was 11181 Marwill Avenue, West Olive, MI 49460 USA not created as survey data, nor should it be used 0 0.08 0.16 0.24 0.32 0.4 Miles as such. It is the user’s responsibility to obtain Phone (+1) 616-847-1680 Fax (+1) 616-847-9970 proper survey data, prepared by a licensed www.cardnojfnew.com surveyor, where required by law. Project No. J090401M64 Date Created: 1/8/2015 Date Revised: 1/8/2015 File Path: R:\Projects\09\0904\090401M_Master_GSA\64_OttawaHMP\GIS\MXD\for figures\Helle.mxd GIS Analyst: Rebecca.Norris Data Sources: ESRI Streets Basemap

• Lake Erie water levels have been recently • Invasive mussels (e.g., zebra mussel) exac- elevated above long-term averages and have erbate HAB issues, but it is unclear whether caused several major seiche events – four invasive mussels will increase or decrease major seiches occurred in 2015 alone. from anticipated modeled climate changes in Lake Erie. • Lake Erie may have further reductions in water clarity and increases in nutrient • ONWRC water resources are particu- loading from more intense spring precipi- larly sensitive to climate change effects on tation events in the future that would create nutrient levels and sewage outflow issues favorable conditions for more frequent since the western Lake Erie Basin has and longer-living algal blooms including shallow depths and high nutrient loads harmful algal blooms (HABs) that degrade delivered from the Maumee River, which water quality and use. Lake Erie, espe- is the largest sediment and nutrient con- cially the western basin, has experienced tributor to the lake (National Wildlife Fed- increasing susceptibility to large algal eration 2013). blooms since 2002 (Obenour et al. 2014).

Refuge Boundary Forest

Wet Prairie

This map and all data contained within are supplied as is with no warranty. Cardno, Inc. Habitat Classification expressly disclaims responsibility for damages or liability from any claims that may arise out of the use or misuse of this map. It is the sole Ottawa NWR - Knorn Unit ² responsibility of the user to determine if the data on this map meets the user’s needs. This map was 11181 Marwill Avenue, West Olive, MI 49460 USA not created as survey data, nor should it be used 0 0.06 0.12 0.18 0.24 0.3 Miles as such. It is the user’s responsibility to obtain Phone (+1) 616-847-1680 Fax (+1) 616-847-9970 proper survey data, prepared by a licensed www.cardnojfnew.com surveyor, where required by law. Project No. J090401M64 Date Created: 1/8/2015 Date Revised: 1/8/2015 File Path: R:\Projects\09\0904\090401M_Master_GSA\64_OttawaHMP\GIS\MXD\for figures\Knorn.mxd GIS Analyst: Rebecca.Norris Data Sources: ESRI Streets Basemap Figure 31, continued. Ottawa NWR Complex contemporary habitat type distribution on: A) Cedar Point; B) Ottawa; C) Burmeister, Price, Adams; D) Navarre, Schneider, Gaeth-Kurdy, Blausey; E) Darby; F) Helle; G) Knorn (from USFWS 2016). ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION AND MANAGEMENT OPTIONS

Many reports and publications document the altered physical form; a disconnected and unique ecological history, ecosystem changes, and highly regulated lake-marsh hydrology; and current challenges for the ONWRC and the entire changed vegetation community type, distri- region along the southwestern shore of Lake Erie bution, and species assemblages. Current formerly covered by the once extensive Great Black wetlands are mostly diked; have armored Swamp and associated coastal wetlands and beach lakeshores; and are managed through ridges. Today, most lands outside of ONWRC, and extensive pumps, ditches, and water-control other state and local conservation lands and local structures. Consequently, these wetland hunting clubs, are mostly agriculture cropland that systems are typically isolated from natural is kept drained and productive through a massive water dynamics of Lake Erie and have lost system of ditches, dikes, pumps, and field tiles. many of the associated ecosystem processes Further, physical and hydrological features and and resource values including water quality contemporary ecological attributes on refuge, con- benefits, filtration of sediments, flood and servation, and hunting club lands are significantly storm surge storage and attenuation, altered. The following points summarize the major movement and spawning corridors for native ecosystem changes to the ONWRC area: fish and aquatic species, habitat for native mussels, and often degraded wetland-asso- • Almost complete loss of the swamp forest envi- ciated wildlife species resources. ronment of the historic Great Black Swamp. Only a few very small isolated and fragmented • The Crane Creek Estuary is one of the few remnant patches of this true swamp forest hydrologically connected wetland-creek remain and these are typically disturbed, systems in the ONWRC, but it is threatened have altered species composition, and do not by sediment and nutrient loading. retain historic hydrological regimes. • Wetland vegetation species composition • Elm and ash in remnant regional forests has changed over time because of altered have been decimated by Dutch elm disease hydrology and expansion of invasive species. and more recently by the emerald ash borer. Narrow-leaved cattail now is extensive, often It is uncertain whether elm and ash can be in near monocultures because of management sustained in the region in the future. for more continual flooding conditions over many decades of duck club and refuge man- • Second-growth forests in the Great Black agement, sedimentation, and changes in Swamp forest region have replaced water-tol- nutrient loading and type. Species such as erant species such as maple and ash with less bur-reed, native phragmites, and wild rice are water tolerant species such as oak, hickory, now less extensive than in the past, although walnut, beech, etc. (Corace et al. 2011). the refuge complex retains some of the best • Many wetland complexes are present along stands of wild rice and native phragmites in the shore of Lake Erie but most have highly the southwestern Lake Erie region. 65 66 Heitmeyer, et al.

• Wildlife communities are significantly altered habitat enhancement on current and future refuge from the days of the Great Black Swamp, with lands should seek to restore native habitats/com- extirpation of many species such as black bear munities where possible and appropriate related (Ursus americana), timber wolf (Canis lupus), to HGM attributes and basic sustaining ecological bison (Bison bison), elk (Cervus canadensis), processes, and 3) active management will be needed moose (Alces alces), wolverine (Gulo luscus), to sustain native community integrity and inherent fisher (Martes pennani), cougar (Felis ecological processes in many areas. This latter concolor), lynx (Lynx canadensis), and others. goal is true because of the highly altered state of Alterations in bird populations also occurred, Lake Erie water level cycles that drove the system albeit poorly documented, such as declines through its daily, seasonal, and long-term cycles in trumpeter swan (Cygnus columbianus), (Keough et al. 1999). A major challenge for future sandhill crane, (Grus canadensis), and osprey management of Ottawa NWR will be to determine (Pandion haliaetus). Most certainly, changes how to restore and emulate natural water regimes in amphibian and reptile populations also to restore and provide critical habitats and com- have occurred in the area (see species lists and munities given these factors, invasive species, and comments in Campbell 1995, USFWS 2016). budgetary considerations. Past management plans for the refuge complex have largely been designed Clearly, the ONWRC and regional landscape to actively control water levels within wetland in which it sets is highly altered, yet it contains units by pumping, which may or may not have extremely valuable ecological resources and oppor- been consistent with objectives that seek to restore tunities. The majority of this region has poorly and emulate natural distribution, abundance, and drained silt-clay soils (especially the Toledo series), processes of endemic communities. Consequently, which retained surface water and led to prolonged future management issues that affect timing, dis- inundation or soil saturation well into growing tribution, and movement of water on ONWRC must seasons. Consequently, the signature soil-water consider how, and if, they are contributing to desired retentive nature of the region remains “wet” with objectives of restoring native communities and their continued spring flooding in some years – both processes on the refuge. Additionally, future man- factors that encourage maintenance of local and agement of the refuge must seek to define the role of regional drainage infrastructure (including recent the refuge lands in a larger landscape-scale conser- expansion of tile drains in agricultural fields) and vation and restoration strategy for the coastal Lake water-flood control management in the area, but Erie wetlands. also some opportunity for eventual restoration General and more specific land-tract recom- should that be desired. mendations for the ONWRC are provided in the From the initial establishment of Ottawa following sections: NWR, a fundamental goal of its expansion has been the protection and restoration/enhancement of the ecological integrity of the southwestern General Recommendations Lake Erie coastal ecosystem and the provision of key resources to the unique, rich biodiversity, and This HGM evaluation provides information often imperiled flora and fauna of the region. This to support future management of the ONWRC overarching conservation goal remains preeminent under guidance of The National Wildlife Refuge today and for over 50 years of USFWS stewardship System Improvement Act of 1996, as amended (16 has sought to protect the regional landscape and USC 668dd-668ee). The National Wildlife Refuge its resources amidst climate, land and water, and Improvement Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-57) seeks development changes. to ensure that the biological integrity, diversity, This HGM report, coupled with the recent and environmental health of the [eco] system [in HMP and WRIA suggest that: 1) restoration and which a refuge sets] are maintained (USFWS 1999, management actions for the refuge complex should Meretsky et al. 2006). Administrative policy that occur within a larger landscape-scale context guides refuge goals for conserving “a diversity of with support for continued refuge land expansion fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitats” and con- within its acquisition boundary, 2) restoration and serving unique, rare, or declining ecosystems (601 HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 67

FW 1) includes mandates for assessing a refuge’s support management actions for species of concern importance across multiple spatial scales and rec- – concepts already discussed in the recent HMP ognizing that restoration of historical processes is (USFWS 2016). The development of specific man- critical to achieve goals (601 FW 3). agement strategies for ONWRC lands requires an CCP’s, and follow-up HMPs completed for understanding of the historical context of the coastal NWR’s to date, including those for ONWRC, Lake Erie region relative to what communities typically have highlighted ecological restoration as naturally occurred there, the seasonal, annual, a long-term goal. However, limited information has and inter-annual dynamics and thus availability of been provided in the CCPs on how restoration can be community resources, and when and where (or if) accomplished in existing and often highly modified species of concern actually were present on the tract regional landscapes. Historical conditions (those and what resources they used. prior to substantial human-related changes to the Future habitat management at ONWRC also landscape) are often selected as the benchmark should be based on understanding the historical and condition (Meretsky et al. 2006), but restoration to current regional context of individual sites/man- these historical conditions may not be well under- agement units and impoundments relative to how, or stood, feasible, or cost-effective, thereby compro- if, the site provided dynamic resources to species of mising success of restoration actions. General concern. Clearly, refuge management should continue USFWS policy (601 FW 3), under the Improvement to provide key resources consistent with meeting Act of 1997, directs managers to assess not only the timing and distribution life cycle requirements historic conditions, but also “opportunities and lim- necessary to sustain native plant and animal popu- itations to maintaining and restoring” such condi- lations. While recognizing specific resource needs tions. Furthermore, USFWS guidance documents of species of concern and priority, the recommenda- for NWRs “favor management that restores or tions from the HGM evaluation in this study are not mimics natural ecosystem processes or functions to species-based, but rather are “system-based”, with achieve refuge purpose(s)” (620 FW 1 and 601 FW the goal of sustaining the entire ecosystem complex. 3, USFWS 2001a). These “system-based” recommendations rest on the Given the above, USFWS policies and assumption that if the integrity of the system is mandates for management of NWR’s and the estab- maintained and/or restored, that key resources for lishing goals for the ONWRC, the HGM evaluation species of concern can be provided. This approach is hopes to complement the recently completed refuge consistent with recent recommendations to manage complex HMP (USFWS 2016), which provides rec- the USFWS National Wildlife Refuge System to ommendations for future protection, management, improve the ecological integrity and biodiversity and restoration of major community types. Specifi- of landscapes in which they set (Fischman and cally, the HGM information helps clarify: 1) how Adamcik 2011). the coastal Lake Erie ecosystem was created and Past landscape-scale conservation initiatives its short- and long-term dynamics, 2) the funda- for the coastal Lake Erie ecoregion have advocated mental physical and biological processes that his- that native communities/habitat types should be torically “drove” and “sustained” the structure and protected, restored, and/or managed to: 1) provide functions of the system and its communities, and 3) resources used and required by native animal what changes have occurred that have caused deg- species and 2) increase the resiliency of the Great radations and that might be reversed and restored Lakes ecosystem to future changes (e.g., climate to historical and functional conditions within a change) (e.g., USFWS 2011, Great Lakes Restoration changing environment. This information also helps Initiative 2013). Collaboration among agencies, provide a basis to help future efforts to expand landowners, and communities in the region will be the ONWRC and encourage efforts by many con- essential to protect the critical ecological processes servation partners to restore more connected and that impact the region and to address predicted functional landscapes within the historical larger impacts of climate change. Regional and landscape coastal Lake Erie ecoregion. scale collaboration with multiple partners and disci- Future restoration and management of specific plines is highlighted in the USFWS climate change land parcels and refuge tracts should identify key strategy (USFWS 2011) and regional climate change resources used and needed by native species, and adaptation plans (e.g., Christie and Bostwick 2012). 68 Heitmeyer, et al.

Recommendations resulting from this HGM evalu- needed to address critical land and water issues is ation and the refuge WRIA and HMP help address large and beyond the scope of this report. The recent potential management adaptation approaches that Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) launched have been identified as important to increase the in 2010 identifies many important long-term problems resilience of ecosystems to respond to projected and emerging threats to the Great Lakes ecosystem future climate changes. These management adapta- as a whole and for Lake Erie specifically. A Great tions include reducing anthropogenic stresses, pro- Lakes Interagency Task Force was created to coor- tecting key ecosystem features, and restoring eco- dinate and recommend important work among state systems that have been lost (Baron et al. 2008). and federal agencies and is headed by the adminis- Based on the HGM context of information trator of the EPA in the U.S. The GLRI (GLRI 2013) obtained and analyzed in this report, coupled with has five major focus areas that include: goals and objectives outlined in the refuge complex 1. Toxic substances and areas of concern CCP and HMP, we believe that future restoration and management of the ONWRC should support the 2. Invasive species following goals: 3. Near-shore health and non-point pollution 1. Protect and restore the physical and hydro- 4. Habitat and wildlife protection and resto- logical character of the coastal Lake Erie ration ecosystem where possible. 5. Accountability, education, monitoring, evalu- 2. Restore the natural topography, water ation, communication, and partnership regimes, and physical integrity of surface water flow patterns into and across ONWRC Obviously, lands within the ONWRC are lands where possible. important contributors to, and influenced by, lake and watershed conservation efforts. Information sum- 3. Restore and maintain the diversity, compo- marized in this HGM report identify the important sition, distribution, and regenerating mecha- abiotic and biotic attributes that historically formed nisms of native vegetation communities in and sustained the ONWRC region, and that must relationship to topographic and geomorphic be considered when planning future restoration landscape position both on ONWRC and and management options regionally. Given its size, other regional conservation lands. location, and ownership the ecosystem restoration The following general recommendations are and enhancement efforts on ONWRC are critical to suggested to meet these ecosystem restoration and achieve broader ecosystem restoration goals for the management goals. Lake Erie, and larger Great Lakes, region. Regional conservation actions that seem espe- Goal 1. Protect and restore the physical and cially important for the restoration and sustain- hydrological character of the coastal ability of ONWRC include: Lake Erie ecosystem. • Protect and support sustainable land and The historical and current ecological character water conservation practices in all major and productivity of the ONWRC region is a product of river and drainage areas. a very large forest-coastal marsh complex associated with Lake Erie and local watersheds that impact the • Identify watershed areas and coastal zone southwestern coastal zone, especially the Maumee, sites that disproportionately contribute Crane Creek, Toussaint, Portage, and Sandusky sediments, nutrients, and contaminants watershed/drainage areas. Consequently, land and to rivers and coastal wetlands and target water issues in each of the river watersheds, and soil-water conservation and erosion-control Lake Erie proper, ultimately influences seasonal and efforts along with improvements to water interannual dynamics of water levels and inputs to quality measures to these areas (see also the lake and coastal marshes, flood events, sediment Gerlach 2016:xiii). and contaminant loads, and physical attributes that • Evaluate the influences of lakeshore support native vegetation and animal communities. seawalls, dikes, and levee systems on The geographic and socio-political scale of actions HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 69

seasonal, annual, and long-term flooding destroyed or modified beaches and bars along with and shoreline sediment migration/movement interior marsh and swamp drainage-water flow events in relation to chronology, duration, routes and dynamics. and magnitude (e.g., see discussion in Herd- The dynamic “maze” of flowage and water endorf 1973). drainages in the coastal Lake Erie region caused high connectivity of water flow and interspersion • Increase wetland-lake-river connectivity of habitats, which created the diverse complex of where possible to benefit native plant and productive communities and resources, largely animal communities. determined by elevation and topography. The • Reevaluate drainage, channelization, and gradient of elevation and communities ranged from diversion networks to determine rates of flow higher ground that supported forest on beaches/ and diversion in each, along with impacts on bars, natural levees adjoining inland rivers and downstream lands. streams, and seasonally flooded inland swamp areas to nearly permanently flooded emergent • Support contaminant containment and marshes immediately behind beach/bars and along reduction programs for watersheds, com- estuaries and river tributaries. A transition S/S munities, and industries (see additional dis- zone occurred where semipermanent to seasonal cussion in Banda et al. 2015, Gerlach 2016). water regimes merged marsh with forest commu- • Restore native forest and wetland buffers nities. The general connectivity of wetlands from along all regional river and stream corridors. coastal marsh through swamp forest areas enabled • Restore and enhance native wetland, forest, movement of water, nutrients, and sediments prairie, meadow, and beach communities among habitats along with providing corridors of where possible (see Goal 3 below). movement for fish and other wetland-associated wildlife species. Goal 2. Restore the natural topography, water Over time, the connectivity and water flow regimes, and physical integrity of surface patterns in the coastal Lake Erie ecosystem water flow patterns into and across were modified and now are almost completely ONWRC lands. disconnected. The myriad of structural develop- The primary ecological driver of the coastal ments such as roads, ditches, levees and dikes, Lake Erie ecosystem is the highly dynamic daily, dams, drain channels, and water-control struc- seasonal, and interannual water levels of Lake tures have altered natural topography and Erie and the movement of this water in and out water flow pathways and patterns both for lake- of wetlands and adjacent forests and meadow/ derived flooding and river-floodplain flooding prairies, including those protected most of the and backwater. Ironically, some of the structural time by barrier shoreline bars and beaches. Even developments were built to “save” coastal marshes, more distant interior areas that were isolated at least on some duck clubs, from extensive deep from lake waters, occasionally were flooded or had flooding that caused emergent marshes to change flooding from nearby rivers and streams as high to more open water-aquatic systems, during high water and storms in the lake acted as hydraulic water periods in Lake Erie (e.g., Campbell 1995, dams to slow or prevent river drainage into the Sedgwick and Kroll 2010). Further, many of the lake. The patterns of movement of water in and interior structures present on ONWRC lands out of wetlands and overland during flood events were purposefully built, either by preceding duck occurred in diverse ways, but often initially via clubs or after refuge establishment, to create more defined channels such as larger sloughs, rivers, manageable wetland impoundment units, which cuts, and estuaries that then spread over the included production of desired moist-soil, SAV, and marshes and swamps in a wide shallow sheetflow marsh plants. And, the constructed levees, dams, manner. Storm surges and some high seiche events pumps, and other water-control structures now are overtopped barrier beaches/bars and caused more the means for active management on the refuge widespread sheeting of water. Over time, the complex (USFWS 2016). More recently, some repeated alternating flooding vs. dry periods in the structures and impoundment areas have been long-term cycle of Lake Erie water levels regularly modified to increase water flow connectivity, at 70 Heitmeyer, et al. least seasonally, and also facilitate fish movement neity and allow water movement between into and out of wetland areas. and among units during high flow-flood event Many constraints exist to removing or modifying periods. Also, evaluate each impoundment existing infrastructure in the coastal Lake Erie configuration to determine options for re-cou- region, including lands on ONWRC. Nonetheless, pling areas into single larger, better, units. certain opportunities seem to be present to restore • Evaluate opportunities to encourage and natural topography, water flow, lake-river/estuary- enhance river-floodplain connectivity on and wetland connectivity, and wetland water regime off refuge lands, especially the eight small attributes. Modification, removal, or creation of tracts in the approved acquisition boundary. topographic features on ONWRC lands will require careful detailed site-specific engineering analyses • Consistent with recommendations in the based on desired conditions and management objec- recent refuge complex HMP, prepare an tives. We agree with others (e.g., Pfaff 2012, Gerlach updated refuge water management plan that 2016) that future reconnection and modification of attempts to emulate daily, seasonal, and inter- management units with at least some semblance of annual dynamics of wetland impoundment lake-driven hydrology should be planned on an indi- areas, including connected areas along vidual basis to account for ecological variability and Crane Creek, based on HGM attributes and resource/social consequences between areas. This suggested desired community restoration HGM study cannot provide the specific engineering (see next sections). For example, past man- analyses, or site-specific recommendations, that will agement in some impoundments has created be needed for respective or coordinated restoration conditions (often prolonged water levels) that projects, but it does suggest, or reaffirm general rec- have encouraged invasive species expansion ommendations that include: or reduced diversity and near monocultures of species such as cattail. Other water and • Conduct a detailed assessment of all water- disturbance management regimes for specific control infrastructure on refuge lands to community types are discussed below and in determine their use and value and make the area-by-area recommendations. recommendations to maintain, enhance, or decommission those structures that do Goal 3. Restore and maintain the diversity, not enable habitat management and resto- composition, distribution, and regener- ration objectives or complement future man- ating mechanisms of native vegetation agement scenarios related to climate and communities in relationship to geo- lake level changes. Any new construction morphic, topographic, and hydrologic projects should seek to plan for future water landscape position on ONWRC lands. level dynamics and changes if possible. This Six broad vegetation community types his- recommendation includes reevaluation of all torically were present on ONWRC lands in a pump stations sourced from Lake Erie. hydrological/topographic gradient from the lake • Generally, seek to improve connectivity shore to interior upland zones. These included: between Lake Erie, river/estuary, and wetland 1) barrier beaches and sand dune forests; 2) areas where practical and desirable given prior coastal wetland complexes including open water/ discussed constraints and considerations. SAV, emergent, and seasonal herbaceous assemblages; 3) wet meadows and prairies; 4) shrub- • Investigate alternate water sources to replace lands, both in forest-prairie and forest-marsh or supplement current water sources in the transition zones, the former also including some expectation of future lake level changes, con- savanna; 5) forest ranging from low swamp sistent with caveats discussed by Gerlach forest to higher elevation riverfront and flatwood (2016:xiv). types, and 6) rivers and estuaries. As has been • Restore natural topographic features mentioned by many authors (references in this including depressions, swales, and drainages report and in USFWS 2016), the exact position of in all wetland impoundments where possible each community in the coastal Lake Erie region to create topographic-vegetation heteroge- was dynamic over both short- (decade) and long- HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 71

(centuries) term periods. Further, the community months of summer. The S/S habitats likely inter- distributions represent continuums, rather than graded with emergent wetlands in the center core precise distinct separation, among vegetation “sumps” of the coastal lake plain environment. It species assemblages that can shift readily as also seems that a shrub-carr habitat dominated water levels and regimes (duration and extent) by dogwood existed in transition areas from change in relation to lake levels, connectivity, forests to prairie; these areas likely also had a storm events, marked seiches, etc. savanna component. Recognizing the above temporal and spatial Coastal marsh complexes were present dynamics of community distribution, the major on clay and silt clay soils in low elevations that community types historically were arrayed largely were flooded annually, and sometimes year round in proximity to the coast shoreline and river- during wet periods of the long-term precipitation estuary areas and the corresponding topography cycle. Emergent marshes graded to seasonally and elevation. These basic landscape attributes flooded wet meadow/prairie with increasing eleva- dictated type and distribution of soil sediments tions. The typical hydroperiod for these habitats and timing, depth, duration, and extent of flooding. was low water level in winter, rises in spring to Obviously, higher elevations on shoreline beach/ peaks in June, and then declining water levels and bars, natural levees, remnant relict inland beach coverage in fall. In drier years, more inland marsh ridges and terraces, and inland upland areas areas behind protective barrier beaches and bars were flooded less often and for shorter duration likely became disconnected from the lake during than lower lake plain, marsh, and estuary/river late summer through winter. Coastal marsh floodplain areas. These higher elevations were complexes had dynamic interannual vegetation flooded during high lake and river levels, during communities in addition to the strong seasonal storms, and to some degree in extreme high seiche pattern. Contemporary emergent marsh under- periods, but were dry most of the year and did not standing suggests a general pattern of change in flood during dry periods of long-term precipitation open water-emergent vegetation interspersion and cycles. These sites supported forest and prairies, extent over interannual cycles of alternating wet including early succession, frequently disturbed and dry periods (Fig. 32). (even destroyed) assemblages dominated by cot- The highest non-forested elevations adjacent tonwood on shoreline beaches, bars, and natural to emergent and herbaceous marshes, usually on levees, and more upland forest stands on inland river tributary fans and old floodplain terraces, and relict beach ridge sites. Sites within low that received periodic short duration sheetwater elevation lake plains, with hydrology character- flow and inundation supported wet prairie com- istic of river channels and sloughs, had seasonal munities. These wet prairie communities were flooding in most years and more sustained located in sites with silt-clay-loam soils, which groundwater tables, which enabled swamp prevented most trees from accessing groundwater forest tree species to survive. These “swamp- during dry periods and allowed grass and sedge type” forests that dominated the Great Black species to persist instead of trees. These higher Swamp included diverse “mixed hardwood” and elevation sites undoubtedly burned during dry more uniform “black ash-elm swamp” commu- periods of long-term precipitation cycles, which nities (e.g., Sampson 1930). Swamp forest types further sustained them. can tolerate frequent and sometimes seasonally The HGM matrix of community relation- prolonged flooding (up to 4-6 months) especially ships provided in this HGM report (Table 1) provides during the non-growing “dormant” season, but guidance for restoration and management of native also require periodic dry conditions for tree communities within the general ONWRC region. seedlings to germinate and grow to heights that Maps of refuge complex soils and elevation are useful can withstand future flood events. in understanding potential restoration sites, assuming Buttonbush-dominated S/S habitats extended that the appropriate hydrological regimes can be asso- from swamp forest areas along drainage, creek, ciated with elevations in each area. Current elevation and slough channels and depressions where maps for refuge lands need refinement to finer levels semipermanently flooding regimes and higher (preferably six-inch contours) and bathymetry data are groundwater table levels occurred during the dry needed for sites covered by water when LiDAR surveys 72 Heitmeyer, et al. were made. Specific thoughts about restoration and ponded soils, and where lake/river water can general community distribution are provided in the be provided to, or reconnected with, the site. next section for each refuge complex tract. More general Further, seek to restore integrated complexes future restoration and management of native commu- of shrub, emergent, and wet meadow habitats nities on ONWRC should consider efforts to: within the coastal wetland areas. Ideally, res- • Restore/manage cottonwood and early suc- toration and water management plans should cession forest on remnant or restored/created base restoration on elevation and natural shoreline beach and dune where sandy soils topography features, rather than artificial are present. refuge impoundment boundaries. Conse- quently, all wetland areas, both impounded • Restore/manage diverse species swamp forest and connected, should be evaluated as an on Toledo silt-clay soils that are seasonally interconnected gradient of communities not flooded, sometimes for more prolonged periods constrained by unit levees or structures, during wet years. It is uncertain if elm and unless they are necessary to achieve desired ash can represent substantial components of seasonally dynamic water and disturbance swamp forest in the future because of issues regimes. In some cases, individual unit levees, with Dutch elm disease and emerald ash borer ditches, roads, or water-control structures will infestation, but restoration should seek the need to be removed or modified to create larger presence of these species as advancements interconnected mosaics of habitats. in knowledge about the diseases and remediation hopefully occur. Swamp forest sites in • Manage coastal marsh complexes to emulate impoundments should be managed for short as best possible the natural seasonal and duration dormant season flooding, drying in interannual dynamics of water levels/extent summer, and periodic consecutive years of no and vegetation/resource type and distribution. or little flooding. More permanently flooded wetlands should be encouraged to cycle through dry marsh to • Maintain and manage coastal marsh lake marsh states to sustain their commu- complexes in low elevations, Toledo silt-clay nities and production (Fig. 32) and seasonally flooded marsh habitats can be managed to establish moist-soil/ herbaceous species and associated invertebrate communities with seasonal water level management and rotational flooding and drying regimes among years (Fig. 33). Additionally, where multiple managed impoundments are present within a refuge area, the impoundments can be managed on rotational bases for different dry to wet states (and associated vegetation-animal communities and resources) so that in any given year a range of wetter to drier conditions are present throughout the refuge area, consequently providing more annually consistent resources of each habitat condition while encouraging Figure 32. Generalized vegetation cycle in northern emergent wetlands from wet to natural dynamics of vegetation, dry periods (from van der Valk and Davis 1978). nutrients, and resources. HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 73

Figure 33. Suggested dynamic seasonal and interannual flooding regimes for seasonally flooded wetlands in the Midwest (from Fredrickson and Reid 1988).

• Restore wet meadow and wet-mesic prairie viously discussed HGM matrix of community/habitat on higher elevation Maumee Lake Plain, and type relationships with landscape attributes, and especially higher elevation Marblehead Drift incorporates much of the suggestion about future Plain areas where short duration overbank desired conditions and management in the recent flooding occurs (or can be managed) in a refuge complex HMP (see Fig. 34, USFWS 2016). sheetflow manner. These prairie sites will Methods of restoration and subsequent management of require periodic disturbance, preferably from each community type will vary among sites and should fire, to maintain a grass/sedge dominated incorporate HGM attributes as possible. For example, species assemblage. Achieving restoration restoring wet meadow and wet prairie habitats will of wet-mesic prairies and the processes that require short duration widespread surface water sustain them undoubtedly will require some sheetflow in the early growing season if possible, and redesign/modification of existing water man- periodic disturbance by fire, herbivory, or mechanical agement infrastructure and development means to perpetuate sedges and grasses and prevent of water management strategies to achieve invasion by woody shrubs and trees. seasonal sheetflow water regimes, coupled with periodic disturbance from fire or veg- Cedar Point NWR etation removal. The Cedar Point NWR area represents the largest contiguous area of coastal wetland complex on the ONWRC. Its location at a pronounced lake Specific Recommendations for “spit” or “point” represents a site where lake currents ONWRC Units regularly deposited sand along the lakeshore and created continuous narrow beaches and dunes that The following discussion presents thoughts separated coastal wetland complexes behind them. about restoration and management options for specific The small drainage of Wolf Creek entered the ONWRC units. This information is based on the pre- marsh from the adjacent interior watershed and the 74 Heitmeyer, et al.

A Cedar Point HMP Habitat Class 1 Beach Developed Ditch Forest Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands Complex Lake Erie Wet Prairie/Sedge Meadow

0 0.25 0.5 Miles ±

Figure 34. Recommended future habitat type distribution on a) Cedar Point NWR; b) Ottawa NWR, Navarre Marsh, and the Schneider, Gaeth/Kurdy, and Blausey Units, and c) Darby, Knorn, Burmeister, Price, and Adams Units (from USFWS 2016). marsh graded from deeper emergent communities for the beach-bar areas. The Pheasant Farm area to wet meadow and eventually swamp forest along grades gently to a slightly higher elevation than its southern edge. The site contains mostly Toledo the main marsh in Pool 1. In the early 1960s the ponded soils except in the Pheasant Farm area Pheasant Farm contained “grass” type habitat, which and high edges of Pool 2, which are Toledo silt clay encouraged the former Cedar Point Club to maintain “nonponded” soils, and remnant beach ridges along it as more upland habitat where pheasants were the shoreline where Ottokee fine sand is present. The raised and released for hunting (Campbell 1995). It site has Potter’s Pond, which is directly connected to is unknown if the county drainage ditch caused this Lake Erie; this area historically had a narrow barrier Pheasant Farm area to dry more than historic times, beach that separated marsh from the lake. Pool 1 is or whether this area contained some transitional wet impounded, but has fish passage water-control infra- meadow/prairie habitat. The presence of “grasses,” structure along the northwest shoreline that should however, suggests at least some gradient from the be operational by late 2016. Pool 2 and the Pheasant lower more permanently flooded marsh to transi- Farm currently are impounded areas, but both areas tional meadow/prairie habitat. Older accounts of the have constraints on water management because of Cedar Point area also indicates that swamp forest current levees and other infrastructure such as the lined the interior higher elevation edges of coastal county drainage canal that separated the formerly marshes and wet meadows/prairies and extended far connected Pheasant Farm and Pool 1 areas. The inland within the Great Black Swamp complex. 1928 soils map for Ottawa County indicates Cedar The following restoration options seem possible Point was primarily contiguous “lake marsh” except for Cedar Point NWR. HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 75

B Ottawa NWR HMP Habitat Class 1 Beach Developed Ottawa Unit Ditch Forest Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands Complex Lake Erie Shrubland Wet Prairie/Sedge Meadow

0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 Miles ±

Navarre Unit Schneider Unit

Gaeth/Kurdy Unit

Blausey Unit Helle Unit

Figure 34, continued. Recommended future habitat type distribution on a) Cedar Point NWR; b) Ottawa NWR, Navarre Marsh, and the Schneider, Gaeth/Kurdy, and Blausey Units, and c) Darby, Knorn, Burmeister, Price, and Adams Units (from USFWS 2016).

• Protect and encourage rebuilding of remnant from future climate change events, recon- lakeshore sand beaches and early succession struction of a barrier beach-dune complex beach dune forest, such as the unique Lamb’s might be possible. Woods, on Ottokee sand soil areas. Further • Manage Pool 1 as a large contiguous marsh alteration to near shore areas from spoil complex that has managed connectivity deposition or other developments that would through the newly installed fish passage disrupt lake currents that enable natural structures. Water level management in deposition of sands along the Cedar Point the impoundment should seek to emulate shoreline should be discouraged. both seasonal and interannual dynamics • Maintain Potter’s Pond as a directly connected so that more natural alternating wet and lake-marsh-open water habitat. Rebuilding a dry periods occur. Current vegetation barrier beach along the Lake Erie shoreline has become more dominated by water would replicate the natural protective barrier smartweed, likely because of more stable that formerly existed and created a coastal water level management in the past few marsh behind it, but current lake levels and years. Restoring more natural species altered patterns of lake currents and sand diversity and dynamics can be facili- deposition indicate reconstruction of this tated with water level management and barrier beach would be difficult and costly to some mechanical or chemical treatments construct and maintain. If lake levels decline as needed. Water connectivity through 76 Heitmeyer, et al.

C Darby Unit

Knorn Unit

Ottawa NWR HMP Habitat Class 1 Beach Developed Ditch Burmeister Unit Forest Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands Complex Lake Erie Shrubland Price Unit Wet Prairie/Sedge Meadow Adams Unit 0 0.25 0.5 0.75 Miles ±

the fish passage structures should be • Evaluate the potential to reconnect Pool 2 managed for pulsed water movements with Potter’s Pond and restore a larger open that correspond to natural lake level connected marsh habitat. Current sediment dynamics, fish spawning events, and lake deposition at the point of water entry to the water quality concerns. pool from the southeast part of Potter’s Pond may jeopardize its position as the primary • Evaluate the potential to restore wet point of connection, and a hydrological- meadow/prairie habitat in the Pheasant bathymetry evaluation is needed to determine Farm unit given its slightly higher elevation if a better point of connection is possible. (Fig. 9a), inconsistent flooding environment and the opportunity to reinstate a seasonal • Evaluate the opportunity to reforest the flood regime. Historically, a band or zone higher elevation south edges of the Cedar of wet meadow habitat likely was present Point marsh complex with swamp forest both on and off the refuge property at eleva- along the south edge of the coastal marsh tions > 576’. complex all the way from the Pheasant Farm to Pool 2 along the 574’ elevation Ottawa NWR contour line. Remnant populations of Eastern prairie fringed orchids are present Ottawa NWR is the largest management in this area and suggest restoration of this complex within the ONWRC and it contains the wet meadow community is possible. most historical geomorphic, topographic, and hydro- HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 77 logic diversity of any area within the complex. As tree planting area in the northwest part such, it historically likely contained a heteroge- of MS2 North along Veler Ditch is within neous mix of lakeshore sand beaches and adjacent an elevation band conducive to refores- sand dune forest; the Crane Creek estuary and tation. Current levee infrastructure bisects adjoining coastal marsh complex; wet meadows and natural topographic contours that histori- wet prairies; buttonbush S/S and swamp forest; and cally likely created gradients above lake complexes of shrub-carr, savanna, and flatwoods in level inundation on seasonal and longer higher upland areas. Older soil maps and accounts term periods. If a future configuration of suggest that the current water and Toledo silty clay the area is attempted, considerations should “ponded” soil areas on Ottawa NWR were highly be made for accommodating high lake level connected open water, lake estuary, and emergent inundation. The southeast part of Pool marsh (e.g., Conrey et al. 1943). Toledo “non-ponded” 9 was excavated for levee material, and and Latty silty clay soil areas probably represented natural topographic patterns potentially transition community zonal continuums from marsh could be restored using fill material from to swamp forest including wet meadow habitats on removed or altered levees. marsh fringes and buttonbush S/S along forest edges. • Similar to the above areas, evaluate the Higher elevations across the southeastern part of potential to restore wet meadow on higher Ottawa NWR (Fig. 9b) mark the geomorphic tran- elevations in MS3 and 4, with some possible sition line to the Marblehead limestone Plain and reconfiguration of the cross-levee between this area along with other higher elevations > 575’ MS3 and 4 along topographic contours. with Nappanee silty clay loam soils represent areas that formerly were meadow and prairie including • Maintain MS4, MS5 and Pool 3 as managed some shrub-carr and savanna where marsh-meadow coastal marsh complexes with water level edges merged with flatwoods at elevations > 577’. management and lake connectivity as Given the historic nature of topography and possible. Water regimes should emulate soils on Ottawa NWR, each of the above commu- natural seasonal and annual dynamics. nities could potentially be considered for restoration At some point in the future, if lake levels options. Detailed topographic information coupled decline, evaluate the potential to modify the with information on hydrological dynamics from lake east levees along Pool 3 and MS5 to expand connectivity or interior surface water flow patterns the Crane Creek estuary area. The highest will be needed to define community transition areas elevations in MS4 and Pool 3 represent and site-specific restorations in individual pools locations where wet meadow communities where more than one community may occur. The could occur. HMP (USFWS 2016) suggested a mix of potential • Restore a complex of coastal marsh, wet future communities and identified potential resto- meadow and swamp forest in the HU6, MS6 ration sites. Some additional considerations could be: and adjacent area to the east that is north of • Maintain the Lake Erie beach area as Crane Creek. This area contains mixtures of undisturbed sand beach and dune, with the each habitat at present and is a site of orchid possible reforestation of a narrow band of populations. The HU 6 and MS 6 areas cottonwood beach forest. are higher elevations that contain levees along the Crane Creek bank, which should • Evaluate a potential configuration of the be evaluated for potential modification or MS2 North and South, Rail Unit, and Pool breaches to allow seasonal connected pulses 9 area to restore a complex of marsh-wet of creek water to move in and out of these meadow-swamp forest-S/S. Elevations < areas and restore a wet meadow and swamp 574’ are within areas frequently inundated forest community mix. by lake water, while the gradation of elevations to 576’ on Latty clay soils seem appro- • Restore wet meadow and riverfront forest in priate for wet meadow communities, and the the Grimm Prairie and unmanaged marsh highest elevations > 576’ could be restored areas south of Crane Creek. The Grimm to swamp forest and S/S Fig. (35). The Prairie contains a good diversity of eleva- 78 Heitmeyer, et al.

Figure 35. Specific elevations, levees, ditches, and management units for consideration of reconfiguration to enable community restoration options in MS-2 North and South, Rail Unit, and HU 6 (GLRI 2013). HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 79

MiniMarsh

MS 7a !( Screw Gate Shrub MS 7b Butternut !( Screw Gate !( Butternut !(Culvert !(Screw G!(ate!(Culvert !( !(Culvert Screw GateCulvert Culvert Culvert

HU 93 Stange prairie

!( Drain-Boardstop !( Culvert !( Culvert !( FU 10 Crossing LiDAR Habitat Contour in feet FU 9 <573 573 - 574.5 - Wet Meadow 574.5 - 575.5 - Wet Prairie 575.5 - 576 - Shrub/Carr >576 - Flatwoods !( Water control structures

0 0.05 0.1 ± Miles

Figure 36. Potential restoration of communities along elevation gradients in the Stange Prairie, HU93, FU9, and FU10 areas.

tions and soils that could enable a heteroge- with a possible occasional back flooding from neous meadow-wet prairie complex. Current high lake levels, elevations 574-576’ could be vegetation should be evaluated to see if a wet prairie, and elevations > 576 represent more stratified meadow-prairie assemblage sites where flatwoods and shrub-carr could could be restored along topographic contours. occur. Tree plantings in FU9 and FU10 at The south boundary of Crane Creek likely these higher elevations seem appropriate. If contained forest on slightly higher natural interior levees could be removed or modified to levees and this community could be restored allow surface water to pulse in and out of the along the length of the creek in these areas. area along topographic contours, a nice inter- Similarly, the MS7a, MS7b, and Butternut spersion of communities could be restored. areas likely contained forest along the Crane Existing water-control structures may need Creek estuary that graded to some marsh, to be modified to allow the Mini-Marsh area meadow, and shrub habitats along elevation to serve as an entry point for lake water to gradients inland from the estuary. pulse into the area. Similarly, water-control structures in the northwest part of Stange • Consider reconfiguring the Stange Prairie, Prairie should be evaluated to allow water FU9, HU93, and FU10 areas to create a to enter this low elevation area on a seasonal combined complex of wet prairie, wet meadow, basis. By combining the units, surface water and flatwoods/shrub-carr habitat along could be managed as wider, unimpeded elevation contour gradients (Fig. 36). Eleva- “sheetflow”, which would enable a more functions < 574’ seem suited for wet meadow tional meadow-prairie interspersion. 80 Heitmeyer, et al.

• Maintain and restore swamp forest in the to wet-mesic prairie and a flatwoods- MSLL-Woods area. savanna edge. • Maintain a coastal wetland complex in • The Kontz tract represents a sharp elevation the MS8a, MS8b, Pool 2 complex. These transition zone from the creek on the east to marsh complex areas should be managed higher elevation upland in the west. Con- for more natural seasonal and annual water sequently, restoration of marsh along the level dynamics and connectivity with lake- creek that quickly grades to wet meadow estuary water levels where possible. MS8a and then wet-mesic prairie or savanna has a pocket of higher elevations that seem seems appropriate. appropriate for wet meadow or S/S. Navarre Marsh • Maintain and restore a complex of wet-mesic prairie, shrub-carr/savanna, and The ownership of the Navarre Marsh by flatwoods in the Raptor Alley, South Woods Toledo Edison/First Energy and associated restric- tions on ONWRC staff entrance and active man- and Dogwood Landing areas. This area agement, along with aging and perhaps deterio- contains heterogeneity of silt clay and loam rating status of existing water-control structures, soils and higher elevations that make the have restricted management and restoration of site more suitable for higher zone prairie- the site in the past. Nonetheless, the location of shrub-flatwood habitats. Management of the marsh at the confluence of the Toussaint River the site with occasional fire and other dis- with Lake Erie offers some interesting potential turbance methods likely will be needed to future options for restoration of a more connected maintain a prairie-savanna condition. wetland habitat complex. Further, the site • Evaluate the potential to manage the Pool contains important remnant lakeshore beach-dune 1, Show Pool and Goose Pen as a more habitats. Important future considerations for res- connected marsh complex with managed toration and management include: connection to lake-estuary water levels. • Protect and allow expansion of the existing Existing levees in the Show Pool and Goose relict beach forest community along the Pen separate these areas from Pool 1 and Lake Erie shoreline. This existing beach- water can back into these pools from the type forest is the largest remnant tract east, but a more direct connection may be (about 96 acres) of this habitat type in possible, pending a topographic and hydro- the southwest Lake Erie region, and the logic engineering evaluation. combination of Glendora and Oakville sands represent prime locations for future • The Woodies Roost complex represents an shoreline forest expansion. elevation transition zone (Fig. 9c) from coastal marsh to swamp forest and includes • Restore and manage an emergent marsh- interspersion of buttonbush S/S habitat. open water pond in Pool 1 at elevations < This area is almost entirely Toledo soils, 574’, which is disconnected from the balance which is suited for this wetter community of the property by the intake cooling canal mix. The highest elevations on Woodies for the nuclear power plant, and is not Roost South and Woodies Roost Sedge may likely to be modified for habitat restoration represent transition zones to wet-mesic purposes. While not ideal, maintaining a prairie. The Hemminger tract is especially more permanent pond-marsh where water higher elevation and could be restored to levels would fluctuate based on climate and lake level dynamics would emulate to this higher zone prairie or savanna. some degree historically isolated depression • The isolated Boss tract is a small site with a wetland ponds immediately behind barrier mix of Toledo and Nappanee soils. The site beaches. The west side of Pool 1 has a higher includes a small remnant forest patch and elevation area next to the Power Plant where the south part of the tract could be restored wet meadow or forest restoration could occur. HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 81

• Maintain the Beach Ridge area as a beach- logical features have been incorporated already. The dune complex with dune forest on the following restoration options should be considered for highest elevations along Pool 2 and a but- each tract: tonbush S/S zone between the beach and • The Schneider Unit does not have the capa- dune areas. bility for active flooding, but can be managed • Consider reconnecting Pools 2 and 3 and also as a more passive water management site, at possibly removing, breaching, or otherwise least in the lower elevations. The site has modifying the levee along the Toussaint a band of lower elevation < 472’ Bono silt River on the south end of Pool 3. This res- clay soils that seems conducive for either a toration of river-lake-marsh connectivity buttonbush S/S community or a passively would allow a passive water regime dictated managed “moist-soil” herbaceous wetland by lake and river levels to occur and allow where water accumulates and then dries a natural transition to a connected lake based on seasonal precipitation and local marsh setting. The best lake-marsh con- runoff. If the latter moist-soil habitat nection sites seem to be along the Toussaint is desired, periodic disturbance will be River given the existing important barrier required to maintain herbaceous vs. woody lakeshore dune-forest elevations and vegetation. The higher elevation west part habitats. If managed connectivity with the of the unit seems best suited for reforestation Toussaint River could occur, fish passage of a diverse swamp forest community. If the structures and management of the Pool 2-3 site could be enlarged the area could poten- complex would be enhanced. Current water- tially be connected with the Gaeth/Kurdy control structures in Pool 2 near the Power tract and be restored to a forest corridor Plant are not operational, but additional inland from the river. pump infrastructure along the intake canal might enhance management. Also, the • Retain the open connected river-marsh narrow band of buttonbush S/S between the habitat in the southern and central part of dune forest along Pool 2 and the lakeshore Gaeth/Kurdy and restore swamp-riverine could potentially be developed for managed forest in the northeast part of the tract. A connectivity with the northwest corner of higher elevation area > 574’ in the west Pool 2. If Lake Erie levels decline in the central part of Gaeth/Kurdy seems appro- future, management of this area may need priate for a transitional wet meadow habitat. to be reconsidered. The best area for enhanced river connectivity may be in the south-central part of the Schneider, Gaeth/Kurdy, and Blausey Units tract given the high heavily armored levee along the southwest part of the tract along These three small tracts are located just east the river. The forest restoration seems well and south of the Navarre Marsh tract and have suited given its Toledo soils and a possible many ecological similarities given their association inclusion of S/S could be restored on the with the Toussaint River and its watershed. At some small Nappanee soil area. future point, these tracts could be founding parts of a more connected conservation landscape along • Evaluate the restoration work conducted the Toussaint River that connects with the Navarre on Blausey to determine if the west Unit. Elevation (Fig. 9e), soils, and proximity to the impoundment can support an emergent river suggest that the Schneider tract was histori- community or should be considered for a more cally swamp forest on the highest elevations with seasonally flooded wet meadow community, a gradation to wet meadow and emergent wetland at least in the higher elevation parts of the in the low east side of the tract. In contrast, both impoundment. Ideally, the Blausey tract Gaeth/Kurdy and Blausey likely were complexes could be expanded to the southwest, and the of wetlands directly connected to Toussaint River west levee removed, to restore a connected dynamics. The Blausey Unit was the site of a elevation gradient of marsh and wet meadow major GLRI project in 2012, and many key hydro- complex. Soil distribution suggests the area 82 Heitmeyer, et al.

east of the county drainage ditch was likely species such as oak should be considered to historically river marsh that quickly graded restore a more diverse forest community. to higher elevation wet meadow and perhaps • Maintain and restore wet meadow-prairie wet-mesic prairie. Consequently, the high vegetation in the west side of the Young elevations on the east side of Blausey seem tract. This is an area of abundant remnant appropriate for meadow and prairie habitat. orchid populations and future management Darby Unit should consider reinstating natural periodic disturbance regimes from flooding/drying Most of the lands in the Darby Unit proper and maybe fire. historically were a classic lake-marsh community driven by lake level dynamics regulated in part by • Retain lake connectivity with the east side of a barrier beach. The Unit also includes two separate the Young tract for coastal wetland habitat, tracts, the Young and Drusbacky properties north albeit heavily disturbed by canals previously and west of LaCarpe Creek, and these sites include built for a marina that was not completed. both coastal marsh and higher elevation forest and meadow-prairie locations. Potential restoration and Helle Unit management options for these properties include: The Helle tract is a small (99 acres) property inland of the Ottawa NWR along the Toussaint • Restoration of more connected lake-marsh Creek corridor. Currently the east part of the tract communities in Pools 1-4 except that coastal is coastal marsh type habitat connected with the swamp forest seems suited for the non-water creek, while the west side is a disconnected managed part of the southeastern part of Pool 4 and the impoundment with a riverfront dike. Soils on the currently forested area in Pool 2. The west tract suggest the areas immediately adjacent to the side of Pool 1 and Pool 2 contain higher ele- creek would have been a river floodplain-type marsh vations (Fig. 9f) where marsh likely graded that was adjoined by early succession riverfront forest to wet meadow. Some interior areas of Pool 1 along the river. A band of wet meadow or prairie may also support forest, but pool bathymetry may have been present on the slightly elevated ridge topographic information is needed to identify (Fig. 9g) just inside the west impoundment. Future potential restoration sites suited for forest restoration of the site should consider: communities. Ideally, some reconfiguration of levees and water-control infrastructure • Retention of an open connected river-marsh in these pools could be considered to align along the Toussaint Creek corridor including levees along topographic contours and allow all of the east side and perhaps the far west more natural points of connectivity between side of the impoundment. If the latter is con- the lower elevation marsh area and the sidered a realignment of the existing river lake. For example, a contour levee along the dike would be needed. 573-574’ elevation gradient would have more • Restoration of riverfront forest in the west side closely emulated natural lake level inun- based on elevation contours. Management of dation dynamics. water regimes in this impoundment would • Maintain and restore beach-type forest along need to be changed to allow more seasonal the Lake Erie shoreline especially where flooding; the site currently only has an agri- Oakville and Algansee soils are present. drain outlet structure. A detailed elevation and surface water survey is needed for the Drusbacky Tract to Knorn, Price/Adams, and Burmeister Units determine the source and cause of regular The Knorn property was the former location flooding of the site. Given its location near of the Port Clinton golf course and sets in a higher the lake shore, restoration to cottonwood elevation zone (Fig. 9g) along the Portage River. may be more sustainable than trying to rees- The strong presence of Toledo soils embedded with tablish ash, which has been heavily damaged Nappanee loams suggest it historically was mostly and killed and may be continually subject to forested with some meadow/prairie insets, possibly in emerald ash borer mortality. Under-seeding a savanna-like character. Future restoration of this HGM EVALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION OPTIONS FOR OTTAWA NWR COMPLEX 83 riverine forest-savanna-wet prairie habitat complex the combined Price-Adams property complex as a seems appropriate for the tract. The site could serve connected forest area. as a demonstration area where a transitional complex The Burmeister tract is bisected by the Little of community types is present, including a river con- Portage River and has open connectivity to the river. nectivity location in the southeast part of the tract. Much of the Little Portage River corridor historically The Adams tract is very similar to the Knorn contained parallel bands of riparian riverfront forest property both in elevation and soils. Further, its on natural levees along each side of the river and proximity to the Little Portage river suggests it these forests graded to more upland forest, savanna, formerly was a forest-savanna-prairie community. and prairie at higher elevations (Fig. 9g). Given the Existing dikes could be removed and the site restored tract size and location along the river, the most appro- to this forest-savanna-prairie habitat. priate restoration for the site seems to be retention of The Price tract adjacent to the Adams property open river connectivity to the site which will support on the west also contains soils and elevations sug- marsh or S/S habitats that quickly grade to riverfront gestive of former forest and perhaps a small inclusion forest. Ideally, the Burmeister tract, along with the of meadow or savanna-prairie. The southwest part Price/Adams properties could serve as initial pieces of the tract currently contains a remnant flatwoods of a connected linear forested riparian corridor that forest and it seems appropriate to reforest the could be restored along the river to its junction with remaining part of the property and to manage the larger Portage River.

Karen Kyle 84 Heitmeyer, et al.

USFWS

USFWS - Mark Stephens

USFWS MONITORING AND EVALUATION NEEDS

Future restoration and management of specific tives and system states are being achieved and if lands within the ONWRC, along with similar efforts they are either improving or degrading. on existing or future areas in the expanded refuge Several studies and evaluations have iden- acquisition boundary and southwestern Lake Erie tified key uncertainties in both system structure and coastal plain, should include regular monitoring function, and in management effects (e.g., Gerlach and directed studies to determine how ecosystem 2016, USFWS 2016). These uncertainties include, but structure and function are changing, regardless of may not be limited to: whether the restoration and management options • Source and magnitude of surface water used identified in this report are undertaken. Depending for management purposes related to changes on the desired future state and degree of system res- in Lake Erie water levels, man-made drain toration, very significant changes to physical form channels, pump stations and input struc- (i.e. levee and water-control infrastructure removal tures, and potential spillway/breach locations or modification), water movement (i.e., restoration on shoreline, river, and impoundment levees. of natural water flow pathways and connectivity between Lake Erie and its estuaries, tributary • Water quality and nutrient/energy flow char- rivers, and coastal wetlands along with restored acteristics of surface water, groundwater, and topography and sheetwater flow across lake plain sediments and in relationship to water source areas), and water regimes (i.e., seasonal and inter- and management of wetland impoundments. annual flooding and drying dynamics in all wetland • Long-term vegetation and animal responses units) on the refuge complex and other regional areas to altered water regimes. could occur. If major changes in infrastructure and management are made, the changes likely will occur Additional information on each of these in gradual sequence over time as budgets, support, important uncertainties is needed; certain specific and resources are available. Each change should be information is listed below: accompanied by an active monitoring effort and in an adaptive management context. The adaptive management framework would: 1) predict responses to Quantity and Quality of Water physical and biological attributes of the site/system (i.e., water flow patterns, vegetation and animal Contaminant and sediment loading in Lake Erie, distribution and abundance, water regimes, etc.) estuary, river, and ONWRC wetlands along with the relative to the management actions, and then 2) use potential deposition, filtration, and biomagnifications follow-up monitoring to determine if the predicted in floodplains and impoundments on ONWRC has response occurred, and what if any adjustments to been a continuing concern. Additionally, increases in the management and restoration activity is needed. HAB conditions require vigilance to its cause, extent, Similarly, if little change in management or structure and potential degradation of native communities and of ONWRC occurs, the same intensity of monitoring resources. The WRIA (Gerlach 2016) summarizes will be needed to determine if desired resource objec- recent assessments of conditions on ONWRC (and 85 86 Heitmeyer, et al. other related coastal waters) and identified water used, extent and duration of flooding and quality problems and recommended specific studies drawdowns, and relationships with non- and monitoring programs associated with surface refuge and non-wetland uses. waters and to some degree also groundwater sources. The WRIA further recommends many future monitoring and inventory programs related to quantity Long-Term Changes in Vegetation and quality of water used by the ONWRC. and Animal Communities

To date, monitoring of plant and animal commu- Restoring Natural Water Flow nities and populations on ONWRC has been confined Patterns and Water Regimes mostly to a few target species. This monitoring has been very helpful in understanding biotic responses Considerable information is available on to certain management actions and system attri- both historic and contemporary water inputs and butes and should be continued. Managers cannot movements of water into the ONWRC ecosystem, monitor every plant and animal species, but certain and natural seasonal and annual dynamics of water species may be especially important because they are regimes. Many water resource changes are suggested indicators of select community status, are species to help restore topography, water flow, connec- of concern, are introduced or invasive, and may be tivity, dynamic flooding and drying dynamics, and either increasing or decreasing over longer terms at resources to support restoration and management unusual rates. New monitoring protocols and efforts of native vegetation and animal communities in the are being advanced for plants and animals on NWRs Lake Erie coastal zone, and specifically at ONWRC. and these can help direct future efforts (Paveglio and Most changes involve at least some restoration of Taylor 2010). At ONWRC, the HMP provides sug- natural water flow and connectivity through natural gestion about key species and resources of concern, drainage and movement channels and sheetflow which can provide priorities for important survey corridors. Efforts should be made to process and and monitoring programs for plants and animals. refine LiDAR data for the entire ONWRC acquisition These include: boundary region to six-inch contours if possible, and to • Distribution and composition of all major determine potential drainage and water flow restora- plant communities including expansion or tions. Future specific monitoring of water movement contraction rates of introduced and invasive and management, regardless of the ultimate degree of species. change from the current state, should be conducted to: • Responses of wet prairie and wetland • Further refine understanding of water habitats to changes in water movement and movement and total water budgets for all water regime management. management wetland units that incorpo- • Survival, growth, and regeneration of native rates spatially and temporally variable ET forest species. and surface water inputs. Preliminary water budget models for some ONWRC wetlands • Abundance, chronology of use, survival, and have been started, but bathymetry data is reproduction of key indicator species such as needed for many impoundments and other dabbling ducks, wading birds, amphibians, water areas. and fishes. • Document how water moves from various lake-estuary-river overbank and backwater flooding events and the relative amounts of surface water infiltration vs. runoff to lower elevation areas. • Chronicle and evaluate water management for all refuge areas including sources, delivery mechanism and infrastructure ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project was supported by Contract nities and constrains for restoration programs. Pat No. F15PD01366 between the USFWS and Blue Heglund, USFWS Regional Biologist, helped initiate Heron Conservation Design and Printing LLC. the project and provided administrative support and Jason Lewis, Project Leader, and staff of ONWRC review of the project. Karen Kyle, Blue Heron Con- sponsored the project and assisted with all field visits, servation Design and Printing LLC, administered planning meetings, gathering of information for the the contract for the project and provided assistance refuge, and review of draft reports. Refuge Biologist with analyses of data and geographical information, Ron Huffman kindly provided much information preparation of report drafts, and publication of the on past and current refuge complex management final report. and offered critical insights into future opportu-

USFWS - Mark Stephens

87 88 Heitmeyer, et al.

Cary Aloia

USFWS LITERATURE CITED

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