Hidden Gems
Preserving the Rich Biodiversity of Northwest Ohio
Picture Ohio.
You’re probably envisioning vast agricultural fields or the occasional deciduous forest dotting an otherwise flat landscape.
And yet Northwest Ohio alone is home to wetlands and prairies, savannas and swamplands. It encompasses one of the rarest ecosystems on earth and supports rich wildlife.
As biodiversity decreases across the globe, organizations in Northwest Ohio are working to preserve, protect and restore habitats and wildlife alike for generations to come.
But let us begin with a species that can show us a little bit about both the resilience and precariousness of our regional ecology.
Our story begins around 135 million years ago…
In the ancient waters of millennia past, a gargantuan armored fish with a bony plate and a spade-like snout thrived.
Although it can grow over eight feet long, weigh more than 200 pounds and live for more than 100 years, its life cycle is remarkably fragile…
Spawning only once every four years, the monstrous yet noble lake sturgeon requires a healthy and balanced ecosystem in which to reproduce.
When the Great Lakes formed, they proved a loving home for the fish, with Lake Erie hosting the largest sturgeon population among all the Great Lakes — reportedly home to a million at one point in time.
And yet it would take thousands of years more until the lake sturgeon would face its greatest foe: humans.
As settlers arrived in Northwest Ohio in the early nineteenth century, they were met with the Great Black Swamp …
...an elm-ash forested mass of water with no dearth of birds, snakes, wolves, wildcats, flies and mosquitoes.
The Great Black Swamp might have been paradise for animals and plants, but it was a barrier for travel, settlement and agriculture, and so settlers did the laborious work of draining it while building settlements around Lake Erie and the Maumee River.
Little did they know, removing the swamp also removed a natural filter that kept Lake Erie healthy.
By the early 20th century, lake sturgeon populations in the Maumee River — that once used the watershed to spawn — had declined to near-extinction levels due to overharvesting and habitat loss and degradation.
Although they are the largest and oldest fish in the Great Lakes, they are now one of the most endangered.
The story of the lake sturgeon in Northwest Ohio is just one of many that depict the detrimental impact of human activity on local ecosystems. Now, less than five to ten percent of Ohio’s original wetlands remain, leading to ecological imbalances on both land and water that continue to impact local wildlife and humans alike.
Annual algal blooms in the western basin of Lake Erie demonstrate the disastrous effects of the destruction of Northwest Ohio’s ecological balance, and local species of both plants and animals are imperiled not just in water, but also on land as habitats are lost to development.
Let’s take a closer look at why Northwest Ohio’s habitats and wildlife are important on a global scale.
This map shows the richness of imperiled species in the U.S.
Although the status of imperiled species in Ohio
is not as severe as in California and along the west coast,
or along the Appalachians in the east,
Northwest Ohio is a unique location for biodiversity.
"The Ottawa River [in Lucas County], for example, has more species of fish in it than the entire Columbia watershed. And that's not the picture that we have of Northwest Ohio. The Maumee [River] has more [species] than the Colorado and the Columbia [River] combined," Dr. Todd Crail, a lecturer of environmental sciences at the University of Toledo, said.
The small percentage of wetlands that remain from the era of the Great Black Swamp play a major role in preserving our water quality and thus also the remaining species of wildlife that depend upon that water.
“A substantial portion of those remaining coastal wetlands create a tremendous ecosystem service to Lake Erie in the form of water quality benefits, fishery habitat … and the associated wetlands for their life history,” Jason Lewis, Refuge Manager at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge Complex, said.
The Great Black Swamp was one of our region’s most important ecological factors, but it’s not the only major ecology contributing to Northwest Ohio’s biodiversity.
"It was a significant carbon store ... and had tremendous capacity to filter [water before it reached Lake Erie]. But the biodiversity was what we would call inclusions within a matrix [a background ecological system], and that would be the prairies that existed," Crail said.
Data source: NatureServe via ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World and Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Across from the swampland on the other side of Maumee River, there is an area that encapsulates over 10 natural land cover types within about 130 square miles.
Oak Openings, the long and slender strip of land that extends from west of Toledo to Detroit, is called “ one of the world’s last great places ” and hosts around one-third of all Ohio’s endangered plant species, which in turn provide essential habitats to many rare animal species, especially birds and butterflies. Oak Openings is also home to two of the only three remaining oak savannas in Ohio.
During the 1800s, the Oak Openings area was 43% oak savanna, 27% wet prairie, 23% oak woodland, 7% oak barrens and less than 1% floodplain forest.
Source: Brewer, L.G. & Vankat, J.L. (2004) Description of Vegetation of the Oak Openings of Northwestern Ohio at the Time of Euro-American Settlement. Ohio Journal of Science 104 (4): 76–85.
In 2016 , natural land — like forests — made up 33% of the region, of which 10% was permanently protected, while land altered for human use — like agricultural fields and developed areas — covered 67%. From 2006 to 2016, the amount of human-altered land actually decreased by 5.8% due to natural recovery and conservation efforts by Metroparks Toledo, The Nature Conservancy and other partners in the Green Ribbon Initiative .
Click on sections of land on this 2016 land cover map to explore current land use in the Oak Openings region.
Data source: Martin, A.K. & Root, K.V. (2020). Examining Land Use Changes to Evaluate the Effects of Land Management in a Complex, Dynamic Landscape. Environmental Management 66: 333–347.
The Oak Openings region is a result of the unique environmental and geologic history of Northwest Ohio. Once covered by glacial ice and later a lake larger than present-day Lake Erie, the receding water left behind sand dunes in its place and an environment rich for oak trees, prairie grasses and other plants.
“Oak Openings is definitely a biodiversity hotspot. These oak savannas are rare in our country, and they really support a wide range of species, partly because of their heterogeneity,” Dr. Kevin McCluney, an associate professor in biological sciences at Bowling Green State University, said. “And so you get a lot of variation in environmental conditions over very short spaces…And so you get a lot of different species in a relatively small area.”
“At one point, we had mastodon and mammoth and saber-toothed cats, but also white-tailed deer and turkeys, black bear — so all these animals…at one point, lived here with all this megafauna, and it was an absolutely spectacular area.” - Jeff Sailer
According to Dr. Karen Root, a professor of biological sciences at Bowling Green State University, the merging of landscapes like swamp, prairie, grasslands and more makes Northwest Ohio such a gem of biodiversity for both flora and fauna.
“It's just this wonderful juxtaposition between aquatic and terrestrial environments that makes it very, very rich,” she said.
That juxtaposition also makes Northwest Ohio a one-of-a-kind destination for thousands of migratory birds during spring and fall migrations — attracting birders from all over the world each year during the Biggest Week in American Birding .
“So if you look at the routes that migratory birds are taking, specifically in spring, there are three general routes that these little birds are following, coming north to their breeding grounds from the areas where they're overwintering, mostly in Central and South America. But all three of those routes converge over northwest Ohio,” Kimberly Kaufman, executive director of Black Swamp Bird Observatory , said.
Ohio has 421 recorded bird species thanks to the diverse habitats the region hosts.
In the tiles below, explore some of the birds that live and breed in or migrate through Northwest Ohio, with a special focus on those most at risk.
To view on mobile, click on the arrow icon in the upper right corner to interact with the bird tiles.
Another key but unfortunate reason this corridor sees so many migratory birds is the decreasing amount of habitat available for the birds to rest before crossing Lake Erie.
“If you look at the habitat that migratory birds need, if you are a small songbird … you're very reluctant to cross a large body of water like Lake Erie, unless you're at your energetic best. So these birds are coming north, they see the lake, they drop down into these areas of habitat to feast upon insects so they've got the power to cross Lake Erie. Most of that wooded habitat, which is the prime real estate for migratory birds, has been developed … so there's not that much habitat left for birds. So you get this funneling effect of all these birds piling up into these areas,” Kaufman said.
While this funneling effect brings even more birds to Northwest Ohio for a magnificent convergence of species, it’s also a sign that habitat loss is a continuing and urgent issue.
“There are some basic global phenomena that have been clearly identified as leading to biodiversity declines everywhere. I would say they're true for our region as well,” McCluney said.
Number one, he said, is habitat loss and degradation.
“The more forest and prairie we convert to agriculture or houses or buildings, the more biodiversity you lose,” he said.
As a result, Ohio is now facing a startling loss of wildlife.
The first official record detailing Ohio’s endangered wildlife dates back to 1974. At that time, 71 species were endangered. In 2022, it was 131. According to the Division of Wildlife under the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, if you included species endangered, threatened, of concern, of special interest, extirpated and extinct (you can read about the distinctions here ), Ohio’s count goes up to 404 animals and 644 plants.
To view on mobile, click on the arrow icon in the upper right corner to interact with the visualization.
In Lucas County alone, 27 wildlife species were listed as state endangered, three of which are federally endangered: the Karner Blue butterfly, Snuffbox mollusk and Rayed Bean mollusk.
Source: Ohio Department of Natural Resources Note: Icons courtesy of Brad, Estu, Regara, Matt, Coby, Cuan Studio and Miroslava from Noun Project.
In the face of habitat and wildlife loss across the state, organizations in Northwest Ohio are working to preserve and restore both local environments and the wildlife species that once inhabited them.
Metroparks Toledo is one such organization leading conservation efforts in Lucas County. Maintaining more than 12,000 acres across Northwest Ohio, they actively work to restore native habitats — including turning 987 acres of former farmland into wetlands. They also oversee the largest publicly owned nursery in Ohio, where they rear native plants — including about a dozen that are state-listed — and collect seeds.
In 2022, they completed the final phase of the Howard Marsh Metropark in Curtice, Ohio, which was the largest coastal wetland restoration project across a 21-state region in recent memory, according to Scott Carpenter, director of public relations for Metroparks Toledo.
Opening day upon the completion of phase 1 of Howard Marsh Metropark in 2018.
In addition to large-scale land restoration projects, other organizations are working lot by lot to integrate native landscapes into existing infrastructure.
“[In] Toledo, you find a place that's located in a region that has a globally threatened landscape — the Oak Openings — and this incredible opportunity to turn blighted spaces or spaces that you really don't need to be managing as a lawn — turning them into biologically functioning landscapes that are both good for the public and good for wildlife,” Jeff Sailer, president and CEO of the Toledo Zoo and Aquarium, said.
Jeff Sailer | The Toledo Zoo
Since 2014, the Wild Toledo and Project Prairie programs have been converting existing lots, either mowed or abandoned, into urban prairies. Their conservation effort has resulted in the installation of 50 prairies across Northwest Ohio, and through a recent collaboration with Bowling Green State University, these programs are being expanded to include more native plant production.
“The things that we can do here in regards to climate change, pollinator conservation and bird diversity is just really untapped when it comes to native landscapes. And now through the program Wild Toledo here at the Toledo Zoo, we can actually connect our guests to actions that they personally can do that improves the situation for wildlife, for climate and for people in general,” Sailer said.
Partners for Clean Streams (PCS) is working on preserving and cleaning regional watersheds.
“Our mission is to develop stewardship among the people that live, work and play in this area. So that we're all actively taking care of our river and the habitats around it,” Kristina Patterson, executive director of PCS, said. “Poor water quality really limits what species can thrive.”
Kristina Patterson | Partner for Clean Streams
In the past 26 years, over 15,000 volunteers have participated in the annual Clean Your Streams Day , cleaning up debris from the Maumee River, Ottawa River, Swan Creek and Maumee Bay tributaries. During the 2022 event alone, a total of 652 volunteers cleaned 62 sites, equal to 29.24 river miles, and removed 13,594.5 pounds of marine debris. Throughout the year, they hold cleanups on their own and in partnership with organizations like Metroparks Toledo.
“Connecting people to taking care of their watersheds — removing litter is so visual and so impactful, and it brings them down to the waterways,” Patterson said.
Patterson added that they often find snakes, birds and fish entangled in fishing lure or garbage.
Nature’s Nursery , a local wildlife rescue and rehabilitation organization, sees their fair share of injured wildlife, too. They take in all native wildlife species, including the more common rabbits and opossums to snapping turtles, songbirds and even shorebirds like Great Blue Herons.
Allison Aey | Nature's Nursery
“Almost all the animals that come into our center are coming in because of some sort of human impact,” Allison Aey, executive director at Nature’s Nursery, said. “The scenarios are almost endless. But generally there's in some way, us as humans have impacted the lives of those animals and interfered with their habitats.”
While rescuing animals one by one may seem like a futile battle against the larger threats to biodiversity and habitat loss, Aey said every life counts — and it’s about the education that happens along the way.
“The more that we can educate [the public] and keep those animals in their natural habitat safe, the better it is for the animals, the better it is for the ecosystem and the more that we can do for expanded populations of species,” Aey said.
Some Northwest Ohio organizations are also working on a larger scale to research and track wildlife in the region.
Kimberly Kaufman | Black Swamp Bird Observatory
“The Bird Observatory is most well known for hosting the biggest week in American birding, the 10-day spring festival that brings people here from all over the world. But behind the scenes, we've been studying migratory birds for more than 30 years in a main banding station,” Kaufman said.
BSBO also brings students into local marshes to collect data and band birds.
“It doesn't take some exotic bird or rare bird; you can put a blue jay or a cardinal in their hand or a little goldfinch. And you can see their lives change through this connection with nature,” Kaufman said.
And like BSBO has done with birds, any real changes in wildlife populations requires effort and tracking over the course of decades. The Toledo Zoo has been doing research on local species for decades, including holding the largest turtle dataset in the state and starting Ohio’s first streamside rearing facility for the reintroduction of — you guessed it — lake sturgeon.
“As a zoo — especially a zoo that's been here for 123 years — we have the staying power and the longevity to be able to tackle these generational issues within the region. And I think that's what makes us very, very unique,” Sailer said.
And if lake sturgeon can live over a century, decades are needed just to see them grow into adulthood. At the facility, they rear the fish in the Maumee River’s water in the hope that they will return to reproduce once mature at around 15-20 years old; lake sturgeon imprint on the rivers they are born in.
The plan is to stock approximately 3,000 lake sturgeon each fall for the next 25 years, and tag them to monitor for growth and survival. As of early 2023, the Zoo and its partners have released around 12,000 lake sturgeon into the Maumee River, and have held annual sturgeon releases where the community can take part in returning the ancient fish to its native habitat.
Sensitive to habitat pollution and degradation, lake sturgeon are a reliable indicator of overall habitat quality — so their survival in the next 15 to 20 years would be a positive sign for overall environmental restoration.
“There are records, when people were first exploring this region, of the Maumee River being filled to the point you could walk across it on the backs of sturgeon — these fish get to eight feet in length. And they were just an amazing part of the natural history of this area…” - Jeff Sailer
And as people play a part in reintroducing a species to the Great Lakes that has inhabited the earth for millennia, they’re playing a role that connects them to a much larger world.
“To be able to get them back into the ecosystem, and to do that in numbers of thousands of animals [has been incredible],” Sailer said. “It's taken an animal that I don't think most people knew existed, and now they're so excited about the opportunities to be part of bringing it back to Northwest Ohio.”
Hidden Gems | Unique Landscapes of Northwest Ohio
This story was updated on August 15, 2023 to include additional information.
This story was funded in part by the Greater Toledo Community Foundation during their “Fifty Years of Funding Futures” anniversary celebration. Through its five decades of service, GTCF has been trusted to distribute more than $310 million in grants to Toledo area nonprofits and beyond. GTCF now holds more than 900 funds and approximately $435 million in assets with the goal of creating a better community for generations to come. To learn more, visit www.50YearsForToledo.com .
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