Common Ground - Western Reserve Land Conservancy

Landowners, state
protect
Pymatuning Creek
corridor
26 CHAPTER 3 HOW AND WHY LAND IS PRESERVED
A joint effort between private
landowners, the state and conservation
groups is helping preserve the
Pymatuning Creek corridor through
portions of Ashtabula and Trumbull
counties.
Much of the corridor is managed by the
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Division of Wildlife as the Shenango
Wildlife Area, with a mixture of
marshland, brush, open land and
wet second-growth woodland. The
Shenango Wildlife Area is leased from
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as
part of the Shenango River Reservoir
project, with a dam and reservoir in
Pennsylvania.
In addition, hundreds of acres of
farmland and natural areas in the
corridor have now been permanently
preserved by property owners with
conservation easements held by
Ashtabula Soil and Water Conservation
District and other groups. Land in and
near the corridor was included in the
largest private conservation project in
state history, the preservation of 3,100
acres in Trumbull, Ashtabula and Mercer
(Pa.) counties in 2011 by Richard and
Rhonda Thompson, a Kinsman couple
who worked with the nonprofit Western
Reserve Land Conservancy.
Pymatuning Creek is the only place in
Northeast Ohio inhabited by the stateendangered
clubshell mussel.
According to the National Audubon
Society, large numbers of migrant
waterfowl pass through the region
in spring and fall, and the area is a
historical Black-throated Blue Warbler
nesting site. Breeding species include
the Sandhill Crane, Bald Eagle, Northern
Waterthrush, Veery, Hooded Merganser,
Pied-billed Grebe, Sora, Virginia Rail,
Common Moorhen, Alder Flycatcher and
Least Flycatcher.
ODNR has developed and managed
several hundred acres of grain crops and
meadows, primarily for food and nesting
of upland game and waterfowl. Natural
succession is allowing some open land
to return to woodland. Development
is limited by U.S. Corps of Engineers’
restrictions.