BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – It was once part of the Great Black Swamp. Then it was cleared, drained, and farmed. Now it is turning back to a wetland under the H2Ohio Initiative. It will be a Living Laboratory for students at the Otsego School District, including a farm plot for the FFA students to use.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) recently joined the Black Swamp Conservancy and Otsego Local School District representatives for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“I think it will be a neat laboratory; it’s another classroom,” said Mary Mertz, ODNR director. “The students will come over and add to their classroom space by having the area to come to for testing, learning about water quality, wildlife, and about how agriculture can coexist with nature.”

The project took 16 acres of previously farmed land and restored it to woodland and wetland habitat. The Otsego School will use the site for cross-curricular activities. The FFA program will use the onsite farm plot to demonstrate the value of using natural habitats to filter agricultural runoff. 

“Every one of these (H2Ohio) projects is different and this one is directly across the street from a school complex,” Mertz said. “The Otsego School is one complex with the elementary, middle and high school students all together. We worked with the Black Swamp Conservancy, which is a land trust, and they acquired this property.”

There is an agricultural field in the middle of the land, Mertz said. The Otsego FFA will work the plot to show how agriculture and nature can work together. The middle schoolers put together signage along the trails. The signs talk about water quality, wildlife in the area, and more.

“The area, like all of Northwest Ohio, was part of the Great Black Swamp,” said Rob Krain, executive director of the Black Swamp Conservancy land trust. “It was a 1,500-square-mile wetland complex that went from Lake Erie to Fort Wayne, Ind. Viewing the hydric soils on this property, there is no doubt that it was formerly swamp land.”

The land was converted to farmland, probably in the later 1800s, by clearing and installing drain tiles, Krain said. The property drains into Tontogany Creek, a tributary of the Maumee River. The conservancy purchased the property and conducted the restoration using a grant from the H2Ohio Initiative. The final cost of the project was $443,000, according to the ODNR press release. They are in the process of turning it over to the school.

After doing ecological engineering on the land, the trust disabled the field tiles, Krain said. Then they brought in heavy equipment and scraped out vernal or seasonal pools. Next, they dug slightly deeper pools which will hold water year-round. They planted native trees, shrubs and other species.

How long until it is truly a wetland again?

“It’s a slow process but it starts almost immediately.,” Krain said. “When we were out there (for the ribbon cutting) the pools were all filled with water. We saw frogs, tadpoles, and crayfish, which are some of the first species to come in. It takes about three years for the pools to adjust to hold the water to maximum capacity.

“We have done a lot of work with the H2Ohio Initiative and this project for us is particularly special because of the link with the schools,” Krain said. “Generations of kids are going to be able to come out here and learn.”

The conservancy was especially pleased about the small agricultural area that the FFA students will use, Krain explained. Otsego is a rural school district; many of the students are going to be farmers.

“Being able to get in and teach those lessons of how ag production and natural habitat can interact and be beneficial I think is an important thing,” he said.

The FFA kids have already started to till the ag field, said Kevin O’Shea, Otsego Local School District superintendent. They have all sorts of ideas, such as a pumpkin patch where students can learn about sustainable growing practices. They have considered a corn maze and doing community events in conjunction with that. They will do soil judging there.

“The whole point is to see how the water runoff works and how ag and water go hand in hand with the runoff,” O’Shea said. “We won’t be using any kind of fertilizer or pesticides. They’re going to see how it all interacts, eventually running off into the creek and then to the lake. A big part of it is understanding how these things impact one another.”

The Otsego science classes have already started to partner with several universities, particularly Bowling Green State University. They are starting to do long-term studies of the water in the creek. They will do consistent water sampling so they can see the improvement in the water quality over time.

“They will be doing a lot of really cool science things,” O’Shea said. “But it’s not just the science things; we’ll have art classes held there, physical education classes will walk the walking trail. Even the industrial tech classes are going to work on building some bridges over some of the wet spots.

“It’s a comprehensive cross-curricular piece of property that a lot of classes are going to benefit from,” O’Shea said. “They are going to be looking at the different types of wildlife. This is a unique opportunity for our teachers and our kids and we are excited about just getting out of the classroom, out of the textbooks, and doing some hands-on things.”

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine created H2Ohio in 2019 as a comprehensive, data-driven approach to combatting algal blooms, enhancing water quality, and improving water infrastructure. H2Ohio operates in partnership with ODNR, the Ohio Department of Agriculture, the Ohio EPA and the Lake Erie Commission. For more information, visit h2.ohio.gov.