Photo Tour of Ohio Wetlands

Below are photographs taken by Ohio EPA staff during several seasons of field research for the wetland bioassessment program. Enjoy a stroll through the Ohio landscape and learn about the uniqueness of Ohio's wetlands!

Scofield Swamp is a large, emergent marsh with a buttonbush-willow shrub-dominated zone along its north and west sides, located in Clark County, Ohio. Scofield Swamp is located in a very large, shallow, u-shaped valley and receives surface water inputs from surrounding active farm fields. It is a headwater wetland to the Little Miami River. In early spring, it is dominated by white water-cup (Ranunculus longirostris Godron), but becomes overrun by late summer with pigweed (Amaranthus hybridus), an agricultural weed.

Triangle Lake Bog State Nature Preserve is a kettle hole, zoned, sphagnous bog in Portage County (northeast), Ohio. The flora of northeast Ohio has a strong boreal element due to lake effect snows and cooler winter temperatures from Lake Erie. Triangle Lake Bog is one of the finest, least disturbed bogs remaining in Ohio, with a floating sphagnum mat, swamp loosestrife (Decodon verticillatus), leatherleaf (Chaemadaphne calyculata), and tamarack (Larix laricina) surrounding an acidic kettle lake.

Sheldon's Marsh State Nature Preserve is one of the few, remaining, hydrologically unrestricted Lake Erie coastal marshes and is located in Huron County, Ohio. The marsh is a lagoon wetland and swamp forest that has developed behind a narrow barrier beach. It provides very significant waterfowl and migratory songbird habitat during the spring and fall migrations.

Slate Run Metropark is a high quality buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) swamp located in a mature second-growth, mixed-mesophytic forest and is a headwater wetland to Slate Run. Slate Run Metropark is part of the Franklin County Metropolitan Park District in central Ohio. In early spring, yellow water-cup and eastern manna grass flourish under the buttonbush and present a beautiful and delicate floral display.

Drew Woods State Nature Preserve vernal pool in late winter. Drew Woods is a relict old-growth oak-hickory forest located in Darke County (western), Ohio. Depressional vernal pools with water up to 1.5m deep are common features in many forests and wood lots in Ohio. They provide critical breeding habitat for salamanders and frogs.

Wilson Swamp is a privately owned, high quality buttonbush and maple-ash swamp located on the flood plain of the St. Marys River, in Mercer County (western), Ohio. This wetland is located in a portion of the St. Marys River called "the Thoroughfare," a 1000 acre complex of buttonbush swamps, swamp forests, and emergent and floating leaved marshes that is annually flooded by this low-gradient western Ohio River.

Leafy Oak wetland is a privately owned, high quality forested wetland with a very rich herb and shrub stratum that also supports multiple species of amphibians. This wetland is located in Hardin County, (northwest central), Ohio. Ohio EPA found a new population of ravensfoot sedge (Carex crus-corvi) in this wetland in 1996.

Large vernal pool in Gahanna Woods State Nature Preserve, Franklin County (central), Ohio. Gahanna Woods is a mature, mixed mesophytic forest with a series of interconnected vernal pools, buttonbush swamps, and wet woods. A robust population of the state's endangered cypress-knee sedge (Carex decomposita) is found in a buttonbush swamp near where this picture was taken.