The Ecology of coastal Marshes of Western Lake Erie: A Community ...

Cedar Point marshes extend westward a1 ongthe south shore of the bay to Maumee 6ayStale Park. Estuarine wetlands a] so occuralong the Maumee River valley, betweenRossford and the first bedrock rjff 7es atPerrysburg, and in the lower reaches ofthe Ottawa River.Although metropol i tan Toledo coincideswith this area, emergent wetlandsstill exist at the bass of Little CedarPoint, in the Yaumee River Estuary aboveRossford, along much of the Ottawa RiverEstuary, behind Woodtick Peninsula(Figures 5 and G), and inside the massiverip-rap a i kes constructed to containharbor drndgings (Figure 7) and powerplant flyash. The marshes in the bay areprotected by dikes and are managed forwaterfowl, The estuarine wetlands aremore undisturbed and often assocfated withthe large islands fn those slack waterreaches.The major plant species thriving inthe Waumee Eay marshes include narrowleavedcattail (Tveha _aaaustifolia),broad-leaved cattail (I. J atifol iq),jewel weeds (Jm~at ienz spp. 1, swamp rosemallow(Hibiscus palustrls), bluejointgrass (Gal amaa rosti s canadensis), andswamp milkweed (Ascle~1~ incarnatal. Inthe transition zone between open water andthe cattai 1 stands, soft-stem bulrush(Sci~pus validuq), and three-squarebulrush (5. americanu) are the dominantspectes. Fish found Sn the lilaumee Baywet1 ands include bowfin (m ~ alva),carp* yellow perch, largemouth bass, whitebass (MQrgn~hrys0~5)~ green sunfish(ie~omis svanel luq), yel low bullhead(Xctalurus natalis), gizzard shad, andwalleye.The historical occurrence of the rareForsterls tern (Sterna forstert) has beenreported for these wetlands (Campbell andTrautman 1936). A bald eagle (Hal iaeetusleucoce~hal(&aS) nest is active on CedarPoint, The most common waterfowl aremallard, black duck, green-winged teallm srecca) , blue-winged teal, northernshoveler (A. cl v~eata) , and Amer S can coot(Ful iu americana). Tundra swans (LUX~;olumbianu) and snow geese (Chencaerrrlesce~) also utilize the area forresting during spring migration.Locust PointFigure 5. Coastal la~dfonnsof L.doodtickPeninsula Marsh, Michigan, showing 1 ocationof cross section illustrated in Figure 6(Jaworski et al. 1981).Locust Point is a broadly roundedfeature on the Ohlo shore of western LakeErie that extends f ram Maumee Bay eastwardto Port C1 inton (Flgure 8). This reach ofshore1 ine contains near1 y continuouscoastal marshes, most of them in pub1 icownership. Fronting the community of PortClinton, east of the harbor jetties, arecattail marshes behind barrier beaches.This is an area of converging Ilttoraldrift which provides the natural sand barsthat protect the wetland. The PortageRiver Estuary which forms the Port Clintonharbor is high1 y disturbed but containssome fringing emergent plants, such asreed-canary grass (ma1 ari s 1