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$50K needed to open rare wetland site to public

Joel Thrash, the project manager from JFNew, plants swamp loosestrife and bristly sedge at Woodman Fen in Dayton. Staff photo by Teesha McClam

Staff photo by Teesha McClam Joel Thrash, the project manager from JFNew, plants swamp loosestrife and bristly sedge at Woodman Fen in Dayton. Staff photo by Teesha McClam

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Money needed to install trail, boardwalk through the restored fen site.

By Steve Bennish, Staff Writer Updated 1:12 PM Friday, June 12, 2009

DAYTON — Wanted: A $50,000 donation to enable a unique parkland to be opened to the general public.

That’s what it will cost for Five Rivers MetroParks to install a trail and boardwalk system as part of the final stages to complete Woodman Fen, a green carpet of sedges, wildflowers and other native wetland plants sprouting from a groundwater-fed wetland.

The fen, which dates to the last Ice Age, is the only one of its kind in Montgomery County. It is wedged between Woodman Drive and a residential neighborhood by Belmont Park.

It would cost about $50,000 for the materials to install paths and boardwalks that will make viewing the wetlands easier, Five Rivers Conservation Biologist Michael Enright said.

“Unless we find funding, it’s a limiting factor,” Enright said. Five Rivers is looking for grants or other funding sources to fill the gap.

The fen is not open to the public — unless you get a special permit from Five Rivers. The parks agency is open, though, to groups that would like to take a look.

It’s taken MetroParks six years to get this far, but for Enright, it’s worth it. The restoration of Woodman Fen has been one of his pet projects. Now, it’s planting time.

“The cool thing about fens is that they can support a huge number of species,” he said, toting a couple of flats of new plants. “We’ll have more than 100 types of native wetland plants here.”

A few serious technical hurdles had to be surmounted to bring the fen this far. For example, an 8-foot-tall wall had to be buried in the fen to retain groundwater and enable the fen to return to its wet state. Drainage tiles installed over the years were preventing the restoration.

Five Rivers purchased the fen land in 2003 with a $134,000 Clean Ohio Fund grant. Most of the year, a fen looks like a wet, grassy area. The soil, black as night with white flecks of calcium carbonate from water evaporation, is unique and of surpassing fertility.

Like a gigantic water-logged sponge, it transmits motion. Bounce on it and your nearby companions visiting the fen will bounce, too.

Fens, unlike other wetlands, are fed by groundwater. Melting glaciers created fens more than 13,000 years ago by depositing tons of gravel that formed a porous layer that groundwater could move through.

This 40-acre site is a cousin to the 427-acre Cedar Bog Nature Preserve in Champaign County.

Joel Thrash, an ecological specialist with consultant JF New in Cincinnati, has helped plant 3,000 plant plugs at the fen this season. There are 6,200 more to go.

Many plants were painstakingly cultivated from other fens in the region, Enright said. Alkaline fens, as they are known, are prized worldwide for their ability to host rare plants.

As this fen returns to its roots, it should become home to butterflies, dragonflies, crickets, spring peeper frogs, rare wild flowers and orchids.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7407 or sbennish@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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