This presentation will convey lessons learned from successful coastal wetland restoration work in the open waters of excessively turbid Sandusky Bay without the use of anthropogenic water level manipulations. This talk will include a brief overview of Lake Erie coastal wetland status and restoration strategies over the past 150 years, with discussion on the ecological winners and losers associated with coastal Lake Erie’s ubiquitous water management infrastructure. To achieve the aspirational goals of restoring coastal wetlands throughout Sandusky Bay and other coastal estuaries (sans costly water management infrastructure), alternative restoration strategies and mindsets are needed. These turbid, eutrophic, high wave energy dynamics pose numerous challenges to restoring coastal wetlands, but they also offer fantastic opportunities for passive sediment capture. Lessons learned from recent and ongoing restoration projects within Sandusky Bay will be shared, including: quantifiable sediment and nutrient load reductions, native wetland plant selection/installation/predation, along with strategies to mitigate invasive species impacts (including carp and plants like Phragmites australis). Lastly, discussion on future large-scale restoration opportunities, economies of scale, and recommendations for reducing the “cost per acre” of wetland restoration.
