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) evalu- ation 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 estab- lishment, 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 sup- porting 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 anthropo- genic 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 conser- vation 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, dis- tribution, and regenerating mechanisms of native veg- etation 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 conser- vation 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,