Panel discussion exploring the progress, implementation, and prospects of wetland restoration within the statewide H2Ohio Initiative, highlighting the importance of partnerships and scientific research in achieving success.
The Allouez Bay Lake Superior coastal wetland complex in Superior, Wisconsin is a crucial coastal wetland for many species of declining birds, fish, and other wildlife. While there is still a diverse community of native plants and wildlife, this wetland is being degraded by non-native species, including invasive cattail (Typha angustifolia and Typha x glauca). Audubon Great Lakes (AGL) and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) are leading a project with approximately a dozen other partners to restore degraded habitat for marsh birds, fish, and other wildlife in Allouez Bay in which invasive cattail was originally mowed and excavated in late 2024 to diversify the structure of the large coastal wetland to increase hemi-marsh conditions. Mowed areas and exposed excavated spoils were seeded with custom native seed mixes. The response of the wetland was monitored in 2025 and 2026 by continued vegetation and avian monitoring, partner team site visits, and drone regular imagery. Adaptive management is occurring to maintain and improve restorations, including follow-up cattail cutting with hand tools in 2025 and grinding cattail with a forestry mowing head and additional hand tool cutting in 2026. The poster showcases the wetland response, including both encouraging, and undesired yet unsurprising developments. Lessons learned and next steps for the project are also discussed.
Each year, around 1.5 million tons of sediments are excavated from the federal navigation channels at Toledo Harbor, which used to be disposed in an open lake placement area in Lake Erie. After the ban on open water disposal, utilizing this dredged material (DM) as a soil amendment became an attractive approach to managing DM disposal issues. Previous research has shown the DM can improve soil physiochemical properties in greenhouse settings (Brigham et al., 2021; Gautam et al., 2024; Gautam et al., 2025). This study aimed to characterize the taxonomic diversity of microbial communities in the fields amended with DM, using 16S rRNA analysis. Among the three organically managed fields, plot 1 and plot 3 received 40 tons per acre and 80 tons per acre of DM, respectively, and plot 2 received no DM (control treatment). Alpha diversity metrics (Shannon index) did not show significant differences among the plots. (p > 0.05). Principal component analysis (PCoA) based on Bray-Curtis dissimilarity revealed clear separation of microbial communities among the three treatments. Each treatment formed a distinct cluster in the emperor plot, indicating compositional differences in microbial communities. Additionally, PICRUSt2 analysis revealed positive associations between phosphorus-cycling genes (phoD and phytase) and soil calcium, indicating enhanced phosphorus mineralization.
Great Lakes coastal waters and shorelines experience sporadic but concerning overgrowth and washup of benthic algae. These events can lead to nuisance conditions and ecosystem impairment. Coastal research and management of benthic algae have often focused on specific genera, often Cladophora sp. and Lyngbya (Microseira sp.), that were perceived to be problematic. However, we have observed multiple other algal groups in benthic samples and incidental observations of shoreline washup. I will present a summary of observations since 2018 of benthic algal community composition at nearshore sites in Lakes Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Preliminary results indicate that Cladophora sp. was found at all locations sampled but was not always dominant. Stalked diatoms and Chara sp. were consistently found, and sometimes dominant, at various sites in Lakes Michigan and Huron. Non-branching filamentous green algae were frequently found in Lakes Erie and Ontario and sometimes rivaled Cladophora sp. in relative contribution to algal biomass. Multiple algal groups contributed to elevated, potentially nuisance producing, biomass. Increased understanding of the prevalence and nuisance potential of various benthic algal groups can guide research and modeling of the physiological (light and nutrient) conditions that lead to algal overgrowth. This work supports ecosystem status assessments and decision making around nutrient targets to support desired algal levels.
Wetland hydrology is highly variable across Ohio’s landscape due to differences in water source and connection. This variability in hydrologic regime controls the function of how nutrients are stored, released, and moved throughout wetlands. Knowledge of these functions allows for better management of wetlands and can provide greater insight for future restoration projects. Previous databases, such as the National Wetlands Inventory, have achieved broad qualitative classifications of wetlands, but quantitative methods are minimally used to classify wetlands by their hydrologic regime. A method that uses open source remote sensing, such as Synthetic Aperture Radar, geologic, and hydrologic data to quantify wetland hydrologic regimes will help to fill the knowledge gap of how these regimes impact nutrient retention in wetlands. We created a supervised classification model in Google Earth Engine that identifies and classifies wetlands across Ohio by their hydrologic regime. By incorporating quantitative methods in this model we wish to address if 1) remote sensing is able to quantify large and small scale differences in wetland function and 2) how wetland classification can be streamlined using a model that incorporates remote sensing data. Using remote sensing to understand wetland hydrologic regime may allow wetland managers and restoration officials to increase wetland nutrient retention capabilities and could save them time and money in the classification process.
Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas that is naturally produced in wetlands and terrestrial-aquatic interfaces (TAIs) through microbial methanogenesis. CH4 can be transported directly into the atmosphere via soil-atmosphere diffusion, a pathway that is understood. In contrast, a more understudied CH4 transport pathway is through tree stems. Recent advances in CH4 analysis have enabled us to discover that trees act as physical conduits of CH4, but the magnitude of this CH4 flux remains uncertain, especially in the upland forests of TAIs. (Barba et al., 2024; Pangala et al., 2013) Furthermore, tree stem CH4 fluxes can vary between species, making estimation difficult. (Moisan et al., 2024) To better constrain stem CH4 fluxes, we have designed a comparative study of Acer saccharinum and co-occurring Quercus species in the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. Our objective is to compare stem CH4 fluxes across species using static stem gas-chamber measurements at different heights along the stem. CH4 Fluxes will be measured during a period of natural inundation in the late spring of 2026, through the fall of 2026. Our results will contribute to pre-treatment measurements for the DELUGE (Disturbance and Ecohydrological Upland Great Lakes Ecosystems) ecosystem-scale manipulative experiment. In this poster, we will present experimental and methodological design, site characterization, and preliminary results.
Staff from the Pennsylvania Coastal Resources Management Program have actively participated in the U.S. Army Corps-led Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency study since 2022. This six-year, $14.4 million cost-shared study between the USACE and the eight Great Lakes states aims, among other goals, to identify assets in each state that are vulnerable to storms, flooding, extreme water levels, and related coastal hazards. In order to meet study goals, efforts to identify vulnerable assets in Pennsylvania’s Lake Erie Coastal Zone have accelerated in the past year. PA Coastal Resources Management staff worked to select 10 assets representing a variety of “blue economy” sectored resources that are both vulnerable and unique in the Great Lakes region. Strong relationships were developed with local asset managers to draft a comprehensive list of assets for anticipated USACE modeling. The collaboration was strengthened through in-depth meetings between USACE staff, asset managers, and CRMP staff. The final list presented to the USACE for modeling includes natural resources, historic assets, unique maritime shipbuilding and cargo management facilities, as well as regional water source and wastewater treatment plants. The poster will show how these assets are connected and, how, when viewed from a regional and international perspective, provide a comprehensive overview of a thriving, yet vulnerable, blue economy.
Common buckthorn(Rhamnus cathartica) and glossy buckthorn(Frangula alnus) are invasive shrubs in North America that grow along forest edges and wetlands. Remote detection of this species is typically done using NIR aerial/satellite imagery. Spatial resolutions of 1-10m are high enough for detecting large patches of the shrub but too low to capture individual plants. Our study tested the utility of high resolution drone imagery to accurately map buckthorn distributions. Buckthorn’s unique boundary habitat, growing location, growing season, growth height, and color all assisted in mapping the species across Tobico Marsh in Saginaw Bay, MI. Drone imagery was collected in late October, a window in which deciduous trees in the area had begun to senescence while buckthorn stays a bright shade of green late into the season. The drone flight collected Red, Green, and Blue bands of imagery across the marsh and was processed to produce a DEM. Band indices were tested to determine which ones would most accurately detect buckthorn. Hue was selected to pull out the shade of green representing buckthorn in the imagery, ERGBVI Index separated green vegetation from senescence, and DEM was used to extract vegetation height representative of buckthorn(~3-7m). The resulting map was created using a thresholding technique across the selected bands and field reports indicate that the map detected buckthorn down to the individual plant, though misidentifies Honeysuckle and Tag Alder as buckthorn.
Wetlands perform vital ecosystem services, including stormwater storage, improved water quality, wildlife habitat, and recreation. Identifying potential wetland restoration sites can enhance green infrastructure planning and improve watershed resilience to increasing precipitation and land-use pressures. Working with the South East Michigan Council of Governments we developed a geospatial approach to identify potential wetland restoration sites and evaluate their ecological condition. We used a 0.6-m DEM to identify potential wetland restoration sites using stochastic depression analysis. Storage capacity was estimated using depth–area relationships derived from contour analysis. Additional screening was performed using impervious surface data and NDVI derived from NAIP imagery to remove developed areas. Wetland condition was assessed using Alpha Earth imagery and a Random Forest classifier trained with field observations and image interpretation. Sites were classified as healthy or invaded wetlands, open water, or upland. Healthy wetlands included floating aquatic, emergent, shrub, and forested wetlands, while invaded wetlands were characterized by Phragmites and Typha. The resulting land-cover map achieved 91% overall accuracy. Combining potential wetland water storage capacity and ecological condition provides decision-support for communities wishing to prioritize wetland restoration and green infrastructure investments.
Invasive cattail (Typha) threatens native plant diversity in Great Lakes coastal wetlands (GLCWs), including manoomin (northern wild rice, Zizania palustris), a culturally foundational species to the Anishinaabe people. Harvesting Typha is an effective strategy to reduce plant dominance, while collected biomass has the potential to be converted into biochar and applied as a wetland soil amendment. This project investigates how Typha harvest and biochar application influence native plant response and manoomin growth dynamics. Based on prior adaptive restoration management knowledge, this study will assess manoomin and plant community response to large-scale Typha harvesting and Typha-biochar application (0 T/ha, 10 T/ha, and 50 T/ha) in four Michigan GLCWs. We will collect pre- and post-treatment data on percent cover of all plant species, Typha and manoomin stem counts, and water and soil quality metrics, to explore the feasibility of onsite biochar production coupled with Typha harvest as a strategy for managing large-scale invasions and native plant communities. We expect these treatments will reduce Typha dominance, increase native plant diversity, and establish new manoomin stands at four GLCWs. These findings will contribute to the understanding of best practices for restoration of manoomin, a vulnerable but culturally valuable plant when done in conjunction with emerging wetland management activities like Typha harvest and biochar application on a regional scale.
Historical manoomin (Zizania palustris) stands have been drastically reduced within the Great Lakes region due to wetland disturbances, eutrophication, and invasive species establishment (i.e. Typha x glauca; Myriophyllum spicatum). Manoomin is a species of high cultural and ecological importance, thus establishing self-sustaining populations is a priority for tribal communities and wetland managers. Long-term adaptive restoration research indicates that harvesting Typha biomass reduces dominance, while producing biochar from collected feedstocks offers a closed-loop restoration pathway for sustainable wetland management. Biochar, a negatively charged carbon product of organic matter pyrolysis, increases crop growth, retains soil nutrients, and increases microbial activity when applied in agricultural settings. However, the impact of wetland biochar application on manoomin is unknown. To assess this, we established a fully factorial mesocosm study to assess the response of seeded manoomin grown in competition (M. spicatum present; M. spicatum absent) with Typha-derived biochar application (0 metric tons / hectare (T/ha); 50 T/ha biochar) over 12 weeks (replication = 8). Our findings indicate that biochar application significantly increased manoomin growth and ovary development regardless of M. spicatum presence (p < 0.001), as well as M. spicatum growth. Thus, biochar may increase the manoomin stand development although caution should be taken when M. spicatum is present.
Laurentian Great Lakes coastal wetlands (GLCWs) provide habitat and resources for marsh-dwelling birds. Invasive species, such as invasive cattail (Typha x glauca, hereafter Typha), have altered the plant composition of GLCWs and impacted marsh bird populations. Passive acoustic monitoring is a promising species survey method using acoustic recording units (ARUs), given low boundaries to entry and lack of disturbance to natural habitat. ARUs have the potential to monitor long-term bird use and assess invasive plant impacts at large scales. However, it is unknown how marsh bird ARU detections are affected by plant communities and invasive plant populations within GLCWs. This study assessed the impact of plant community [open water, Typha stand, bulrush stand, sedge meadow] and distance from the ARU [0 – 150 meters] on marsh bird detection rates. Focal marsh bird playbacks were recorded with a SongMeter SM4, analyzed with BirdNET-Analyzer, and verified with Raven Lite 2.0. Detections declined substantially beyond 75 meters in all community types. Detections were lower in Typha stands and sedge meadows compared to bulrush stands. This study informs passive acoustic monitoring strategies for marsh bird surveys by identifying accurate sampling areas within different wetland plant communities.
Allouez Bay in Superior, Wisconsin hosts one of the highest-quality remaining Lake Superior coastal wetlands in the St. Louis River Estuary including large beds of restored manoomin (wild rice), fostering many recreation interests including fishing and hunting. The second phase of a large-scale restoration of Allouez Bay that fits into the broader Headwaters Vision Plan, phase 2 of the restoration work prioritizes wave attenuation to protect the coastal wetland from wave energy and directly provide favorable conditions to allow submergent and aquatic vegetation to re-establish in areas where historical vast hemi-marsh was documented. Another priority is for features to directly provide fish and wildlife habitat leading to improved conditions for recreation activities. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) and Audubon Great Lakes (AGL) lead a team of a dozen partners to review alternatives of wave attenuation structures modeled by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Each of the three alternatives, informed by bathymetry, historical aerials, and other data represents a further refined series of barchan dune and other island and peninsula features, incorporating feedback from the partner team and the community. USACE also modeled circulation behind features for each alternative to avoid stagnation. The poster displays the alternatives that led to the selected alternative that provides the basis for design for phase 2 of the Allouez Bay restoration project.
The Obtawaing Coastal Resilience Planning Project was a 2-year project completed in Fall 2025 to address collaborative efforts identifying and prioritizing coastal resilience projects and conservation efforts within the Obtawaing Biosphere Region (OBR), located in northern Michigan. The project defined coastal resilience as ability of “communities, infrastructure, ecosystems and economy to withstand, adapt to, and recover from persistent stressors and changing conditions.” Ultimately, the OBR project has helped to: improve opportunities for coordination and collaboration; incorporate local perspectives into regional planning; elevate site-level planning to the landscape level; and, identify and prioritize large-scale, high impact coastal resilience projects. Project deliverables include a Prioritization Toolset, with a series of three separate tools: 1) a Project Mapper, 2) two Zonation Prioritization Models (including ecological and community indicators), and 3) a customizable suitability model that allows users to define the analysis, run their own model, and visualize the results in a heat map. These tools, along with a project scoring system developed by the OBR Project Management Team, led to the prioritization of the first round of coastal resilience projects in summer 2025. Prioritization assists in decision-making for practitioners, communities, and funders often faced with realities of limited resources to carry out projects.
Eutrophication of freshwater environments due to increased human caused nutrient pollution has become a major problem in the the Great Lakes and globally, leading to harmful algal blooms. Past research has mostly focused on the effects of eutrophication on larger lakes, but limited attention has been centered on inland lakes. Smaller, populated inland lakes are also susceptible to eutrophication, and can affect large populations of humans and wildlife. Little Long Lake is a 150 acre lake located between South-Central Michigan and Northeast Indiana, with a populated shoreline. Volunteer scientists living on the lake collected water quality samples during the summers of 2022-2025 from 5 sites on the lake, including an outlet, two drainage inlets, and two limnetic zone sites, and monitored for algal blooms in the lake. Samples were sent to The Ohio State’s Stone Laboratory to test the samples for total phosphorus (TP). NOAA’s historical weather data was accessed to track daily rainfall over collection time periods (April-October). Analysis of TP over time revealed peaks in concentration in the spring, and a subsequent drop in TP moving forward. Comparison of total annual rainfall and TP revealed a strong positive correlation, suggesting a relationship between increased rainfall and eutrophication by phosphorus pollution. The results from this experiment will be communicated to residents of the Little Long Lake community to help them understand nutrient cycling on their lake.
Fundamentally, coastal bluff recession is driven by wave attack at the bluff toe. However, the water level fluctuations that characterize the Laurentian Great Lakes, combined with sparse nearshore bathymetric data, make it difficult to quantify the frequency at which these bluff toes are exposed to wave attack. This project will use a novel GIS tool – CoastalAnalyst - to assimilate deepwater wave hindcasts from the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ Wave Information Study, historical beach profiles captured from imagery-derived DEMs, LiDAR-derived bathymetric data from the Canadian Hydrographic Service, and historical water level gauge data from Goderich Harbour in order to estimate the frequency at which bluff toes in southeastern Lake Huron are exposed to wave attack between 2006 and 2024. The resulting metric – wave impact hours – will then be correlated to measured rates of bluff toe retreat during this period to assess its usefulness as a predictor of coastal bluff recession.
Increasing shoreline development, changes in water levels, storm activity, and reduced lake ice has resulted in accelerated shoreline erosion around the Laurentian Great Lakes. Along the northern shore of Lake Erie, retreat of glacial bluffs threatens sensitive habitats, infrastructure, and personal property. This study quantifies the extent of modern shoreline change and bluff retreat along 186 km of beach and 109 km of bluffs in the north central basin of Lake Erie between 2006 and 2020. Shoreline change and bluff retreat were quantified using imagery from the Southwestern Ontario Orthophotography Project (SWOOP) and digital elevation model datasets for 2006, 2010, 2015, and 2020. Results suggest that the average rate of bluff toe and brink retreat were −1.75 m y^-1 and −1.56 m y^-1, respectively, but with significant variation in retreat alongshore and in response to variations in water level. The corresponding alongshore average annual volumetric loss from the bluffs was 43.23 × 10^5 m3 y^-1. Despite the liberation of large amounts of sediment from the bluffs, the shoreline continued to erode along the distal spits, suggesting that sediment is being transported offshore or beyond the distal ends of the spits. Further study and fieldwork is required to determine the current and future fate of the bluff sediment as part of a regional sediment budget.
This presentation includes multiple case studies of shoreline restoration and aquatic habitat creation projects undertaken throughout the Great Lakes region under the Initiative for Resilient Great Lakes Coasts. Funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and implemented through a partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Cities Initiative (GLSLCI), these projects represent a collaborative, community-centered approach to addressing the ecological and infrastructure challenges facing Great Lakes coastlines. Case studies will include a range of design strategies employed across diverse shoreline contexts, including bluff and bank stabilization, aquatic habitat structure installation, shoreline softening techniques, toe protection measures, and the integration of public and recreational access. Each case study highlights how site-specific conditions and community priorities shaped final design outcomes. Case studies will highlight the role of meaningful community engagement in driving project success from early stakeholder outreach to design iteration. These case studies offer inspiration and lessons for practitioners working in the areas of coastal resilience, ecological restoration, and community partnership. This talk is meant to supplement the broader programmatic presentation discussing the same initiative.
In October 2023, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation celebrated the completion of a new wetland ecosystem in Buffalo's Outer Harbor — a former industrial shipping slip filled with dredged sediment and enclosed by a concrete breakwater. The slip wetland is simultaneously a dredge disposal solution, a regulatory compliance mechanism, and an ecological restoration credit lubricating speculative real estate development on one of Lake Erie's most vulnerable coastlines. Championed as a contribution to coastal resilience, the project exemplifies a paradox at the heart of Great Lakes coastal governance today: the ecosystem that would be most resilient in the face of the new climate-driven hydrological regime is the very dune-wetland complex that settlers once destroyed. The wetlands now being engineered are not resilient. Ecologically, they are not even wetlands. At best they are tokenistic or symbolic—a simulacrum of what was destroyed but serving no gross ecological function. So what work are they doing? Drawing on the history of Buffalo’s Outer Harbor, this paper examines the political economy of ecological restoration and the way in which projects like the slip wetland are ecologically insignificant but serve as an anchor for real estate capital on the Outer Harbor. What is proving to be resilient is the way the growth machine utilizes ecological discourse for the work of economic development.
