2013 Conference Funders, Partners and Sponsors
$25,000 Level
Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District$20,000 Level
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Fresh Water Sciences$10,000 Level
The Brookby Foundation$5,000 Level
The Fund for Lake Michigan$2,500 Level
Ducks Unlimited$500 Level
Gathering Waters Conservancy
Natural Resource Technology$250 Level
Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative
The John G. Shedd Aquarium
Mentor Marsh: Pretty Dry for a Wetland
Guest post from Jennifer Doron, Director of Marketing & Communications, Ohio Environmental Council
Yesterday, I joined a couple dozen Great Lakes Conference attendees on a trip to Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, an 850-acre, “plain peat wetland” on Lake’s Erie southern shore. It wasn’t what I expected for a wetland.
Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve near Cleveland
First, we walked through a neighborhood, right between two houses, and down onto a boardwalk through the marsh. Second there wasn’t much water.
There was a small pool of water, with a couple of turtles at the edges, but mostly it was a sea of dry vegetation as far as we could see – phragmites and narrow-leaf cattail.
Staff from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History lead us through part of the marsh and then to a remnant of the forest – two vastly different areas of the same protected area.
From the Museum on the marsh:
Though human impacts have changed vegetation dramatically, Mentor Marsh still boasts twelve endangered, threatened and species of special concern.
Restoration work is allowing for the return of native species.
Read more about the marsh.
More work needs to be done, with newer and innovative solutions found to combat invasive plants like the phragmites, to restore this wonderful oasis back to a great bird and fish sanctuary.
View more photos from the field trip.