Fri Feb 03 2012
by Jennie Vasarhelyi, Cuyahoga Valley National Park
This summer, when you visit the Beaver Marsh in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, you may see staff or volunteer citizen scientists collecting data as part of major initiative to measure "vital signs" at national parks around the country.
Measuring vital signs involves taking inventory and monitoring. While the inventory provides a snapshot of the natural resources, monitoring tracks the health of the natural resources across time.
At Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the largest inventory and monitoring project focuses on wetlands that all occur in the Cuyahoga River floodplain. Wetlands are a significant part of the park's natural environment, with nearly 1,500 distinct areas covering more than 1,900 acres. Many are smaller than one acre. However, about 40 are larger than 10 acres.
The 70-acre Beaver Marsh is among the healthiest of the park's wetlands. Its transformation is an iconic story of the environmental recovery of the Cuyahoga Valley.
Before park establishment in 1974, an auto salvage yard occupied the land that is now the Beaver Marsh. When the park and volunteers from the Sierra Club worked to clean the area, they quickly received help from beavers, which returned to the valley after a 150-year absence. Beavers built a system of dams to hold water in the marsh. It includes a dam across the Ohio & Erie Canal, as well as walls of mud and sticks that you can see surrounding the deepest water along the Beaver Marsh boardwalk.
Monitoring the marsh
Park staff use a variety of approaches to inventory and monitor the integrity of the Beaver Marsh and other park wetlands.
Biologist Sonia Bingham is leading the work.
"Our goal is to identify trends in wetland health across the park and recognize patterns of change over time. This will help the park's resource managers make educated decisions about wetland management," Bingham said.
The Beaver Marsh scored 88 out of 100 possible points on an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency assessment -- the highest score of any park wetland evaluated so far. This score reflects the variety in water sources and diverse plant communities that create habitat for healthy populations of resident and migratory birds.
To identify a wetland, scientists look for the presence of water-loving plants and gray-to-black soils that result from the interaction of water with the iron in the soil. They also look for indicators that water is present in the root zone for an extended period during the growing season.
Bingham started learning about the flow of water through the Beaver Marsh during the wetland delineation process. During delineation, the entire wetland boundary is located and marked using GPS. This also provides an opportunity to document where water enters or leaves the wetland.
To measure groundwater, Bingham has also installed several monitoring wells -- white plastic tubes that you may encounter in the park.
A 'special place'
We have learned that the Beaver Marsh is a complex of wetland communities that are all connected by water and influenced by beaver activity.
While technically one large wetland, the character of its water changes from place to place and the plant composition changes with it.
Groundwater feeds the marsh from both the north and south. Where this occurs, skunk cabbage is prevalent.
Surface water runoff from Howe Meadow enters from the west, which may have higher temperatures and nutrients, resulting in more pollution-tolerant vegetation near Riverview Road.
The river has contributed fertile sediments to the marsh in past floods and may do so again. The beaver dams create deep-water areas where only certain types of plants like fragrant water lily and spadderdock thrive.
Plant communities in the Beaver Marsh will soon be surveyed using a method that will show how they are responding to environmental changes.
What we have learned about the Beaver Marsh so far confirms what many people know from their visits to the site -- it is a special place.
"Although it has only been restored for about 20 years, the rich soils and diverse plant communities provide much evidence that this area was a marsh long before it became a salvage yard. Fortunately, the industrial use of the marsh did not overly impact the soil and seed bank within the soil. Because of this, complex natural communities could become reestablished quickly," Bingham said.
The beaver marsh is approximately one-half mile north of Ira Trailhead on the Towpath Trail. Ira Trailhead is located at 3801 Riverview Road, just north of Ira Road in Peninsula.
For more information, call 330-657-2752.
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