FREMONT — Ohio is planning two more coastal wetlands projects state leaders hope will add to the ongoing, multimillion-dollar effort to improve and protect Lake Erie’s health.
The latest pair are being done where Pickerel and Raccoon creeks empty into Lake Erie at Pickerel Creek Wildlife Area in Sandusky. The work there is intended to complement similar efforts being undertaken by the city of Sandusky along the Cedar Point Causeway.
Those and multiple others are being funded by Gov. Mike DeWine’s H2Ohio program, which seeks to improve water quality statewide with a three-pronged strategy: building new wetlands and restoring existing ones; reducing nutrient-laden runoff through a suite of voluntary, but state-subsidized, farming incentives; and improving water infrastructure by replacing lead service lines and other hardware, especially in low-income areas that have been traditionally underserved.
Mr. DeWine said in a recent statement that the two latest wetland projects — like others — will improve wildlife habitat as well as water quality.
The new work is being done in collaboration with the Nature Conservancy.
Alexis Sakas, the Nature Conservancy’s natural infrastructure director, agreed these are two projects “that will restore wetlands, increase fish and wildlife habitat, and improve water quality in Sandusky Bay.”
“These wetlands are long-term solutions that will help keep water clean and create beautiful spaces for people to visit in the Sandusky Bay,” said Mary Mertz, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Though the Summer 2023 algal bloom season is still weeks away, researchers across the Great Lakes region have been preparing for another onslaught. High-tech buoys with sensors to provide real-time information about water quality are being deployed throughout the Great Lakes, including 15 near the Ohio shoreline and 10 near the Ontario coast.
This is the first full season each of Ohio’s eight Lake Erie shoreline counties will have at least one buoy transmitting data throughout bloom season.
Plans for Pickerel Creek include restoring 44 acres of wetlands in the wildlife area’s interior. The state’s goal is to reconnect the creek with its floodplain, which the Ohio DNR said will promote natural water movement between the stream and adjacent land during storms.
Construction is expected to last into late summer. Vegetation will be planted in the fall.
The Raccoon Creek work involves seven acres that will be redesigned to “filter agricultural drainage, increase diversity, and improve habitat for a variety of species,” according to the DNR website.
The state agency expects that project to provide critical spawning habitat for game fish like northern pike and more places for birds to forage and nest.
“Restored wetlands provide innumerable benefits for both people and wildlife,” said Kendra Wecker, chief of DNR’s Division of Wildlife.
George Bullerjahn, a Bowling Green State University scientist who has for years made Sandusky Bay water quality a focus of his research, told The Blade he looks forward to collecting water samples with his crew aboard BGSU’s research vessel, the Ziggy, again.
His crew collects water samples weekly as part of an ongoing effort to create a baseline data set, with this year’s season starting May 1. That data, in turn, will be used to assess such restoration efforts, he said.
“I agree with the comments made by all in the [Ohio DNR] press release, but it's a small step to restoring Sandusky Bay,” Mr. Bullerjahn said. “One outcome I look for is the re-establishment of submerged aquatic vegetation that will consume excess nutrients, which in turn will limit the internal loading of phosphorus due to sediment resuspension. Our efforts in the bay are aimed at getting baseline data so that we can assess the success of these restoration efforts.”
First Published April 16, 2023, 3:37 p.m.
