User:JaGa/Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve

The Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve is a 673-acre wetland reserve in Lake County, Ohio, about 30 miles east of Cleveland, situated on a former channel of the Grand River. With its proximity to Headlands Beach State Park and the Lake Erie shoreline, the preserve is a popular destination for bird watchers.

Geography
Before the first recorded survey in 1796, the Grand River flowed through what is now the Mentor Marsh. Eventually, coastal erosion from Lake Erie cut deeply enough into the land to meet a bend in the river, creating a new outlet at Fairport Harbor. Due to this, the bypassed river bed west of the new outlet gradually became a swamp forest.

Flora and fauna
Presently, Mentor Marsh is dominated by cattails (Typha angustifolia, T. latifolia) and reed grass (Phragmites communis) and has low wooded banks. The swamp forest, composed of an elm-ash-maple community (Ulmus rubra, Fraxinus americana, Acer rubrum), has been reduced in size in the past few decades due to flooding and possibly effluents from brine wells and salt mine wastes.

Over 90 species of birds including the endangered bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus), and king rail (Rallus elegans), and 20 species of mammals have been observed in Mentor Marsh. the muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) and short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) are the most common furbearers. The most abundant reptiles are the northern water snake (Natrix s. sipendon), snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina), and midland painted turtle (Chrysemys picta marginata).

Birds
One of the best places in Ohio during spring migration. More than 250 species have been recorded in just Mentor Marsh. Add in the wooded dunes and beach of Headlands Dunes State Nature Preserve and the open waters of Lake Erie and the shelter waters of Fairport Harbor and you've got incredible birding potential. More than 125 species are regularly seen here at the height of spring migration and 100 species have been recorded on just one trail (Zimmerman) in Mentor Marsh.

History
By 1960, residential development projects threatened the marsh. In response, the Burroughs Nature Club in nearby Willoughby began a conservation campaign, soon joined by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and The Nature Conservancy a year later. The campaign raised money to purchase an 80-acre parcel of marshland owned by the New York Central Railroad.

Mentor Marsh was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1964, the first such designated site in the state of Ohio.