Project Summary
West Creek Conservancy worked with a private landowner to develop a restoration concept to convert his agricultural land to wetlands. The land is adjacent to Chippewa Creek in Westfield Township and Seville, Ohio.
Project goals were to reconnect natural hydrology, capture and treat stormwater and floodwaters, nutrient and pollutant reduction to Chippewa Creek, convert agricultural lands to wetlands, and create aquatic and terrestrial habitat.
The 57-acre project converted approximately 43 acres of agricultural land into a combination of wet meadow, scrub-shrub wetland, forested wetland, emergent wetland, and riparian forest while enhancing approximately 5 acres of existing wetlands and forest while treating invasive species across the entire site.
Wetland creation included about 940 CY of earthwork and approximately 12 acres of hummock and hollow grading and vernal pool creation; in addition to the trees, shrubs, live stakes, and plants installed as well (many of which are within ‘pods’ which help such species thrive before deer/animal pressure).
Project Partners
This project was made possible through an H2Ohio Ohio River Basin Grant through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, secured in 2021. It’s also so very important to note that this project was only made possible through the generosity of the landowner who donated the Conservation Easement to West Creek, which in turn leveraged the organization’s ability to obtain H2Ohioi Funding through ODNR.
Expected Outcomes and Benefits
Adjacent stormwater runoff is now captured in restored wetlands and treated before it makes its way to Chippewa Creek.
To date, 928 trees, 765 shrubs, and 500 live stakes were installed in fall 2022 with over 1,000 herbaceous plugs to be installed in the spring of 2023 with a supplemental planting of woodies in the fall of 2023.
Over 30 large woody debris habitat features such as downed logs, rootwads, brush piles, white pine post clusters, and standing snags were also installed as part of the restoration to provide additional wildlife habitat.
It has been estimated that this project will reduce annual Nitrogen inputs to Chippewa Creek by around 520 lbs., annual Phosphorus by around 136 lbs., and annual sediment by around 90 tons.
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