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Wetland opens after seven-year restoration

Walmart spent $400,000 for work done by Five Rivers MetroParks.

Location of the Woodman Fen wetlands

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By Steve Bennish, Staff Writer Updated 12:42 AM Sunday, July 11, 2010

DAYTON — Dozens of Belmont neighborhood residents spent part of Saturday afternoon, July 10, touring an ecological wonder that hasn’t been itself for a century or more.

Thanks to an extensive restoration by Five Rivers MetroParks, an ancient wetland that dates to the last Ice Age 13,000 years ago, is now officially open to the public.

The place is Woodman Fen and it’s a groundwater-fed wetland. The unusual property has come a long way in the more than seven years MetroParks has worked there, redeeming it from a time when it was used as an illegal dump.

A 1,000-foot boardwalk that snakes around the wetland and keeps your feet dry is the longest in the MetroParks system. Below, the soggy earth is a rich coal-black peat. The soil is flaked with white calcium carbonate from water evaporation. The ground is so saturated it that bounces when you walk.

There’s nothing else like it in Montgomery County.

The fen’s nearest geological cousin is the Beavercreek Wetlands in Greene County.

To date, Walmart has spent about $400,000 to restore about 30 acres of wetland. A $50,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation paid for the boardwalk.

Walmart agreed to the restoration under terms of the federal Clean Water Act for bulldozing a wetland for a store near Dayton Mall. Five Rivers bought the land with Clean Ohio program funds.

Michael Enright, MetroParks’ conservation biologist and manager of the restoration, said rare fen plant species are being reborn with the project.

Woodman Fen’s entrance and parking is accessible from Newcastle Drive off Eastgate Avenue. Summer hours are from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Dogs are allowed provided they are leashed.

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