Portage Park District Takes Ownership of Bird Family Bog

The Portage Park District now owns the Bird Family Bog in Rootstown, which is being rehabilitated as part of the H2Ohio initiative.   

After the bog is rehabilitated, the Bird Family Bog Park and Reserve will have recreational trails where people can hike, said Bob Lange, the natural areas steward for the Portage Park District. 

The bog was previously owned by the West Creek Conservancy during a portion of the rehabilitation. 

The H2Ohio initiative is working to address algal blooms in Lake Erie caused by runoff containing nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen. The nutrients in the runoff come from agricultural fertilizer, manure, wastewater, etc. H2Ohio works to reduce runoff by engineering wetlands that filter phosphorus and using nutrient management strategies. 

“Water flows through it [the bog] and into the Breakneck Creek, which flows into the Cuyahoga River, which ultimately goes into Lake Erie”, said Geoffrey Westerfield, the assistant wildlife management supervisor for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

If algal blooms form on Lake Erie, the algae can be dangerous for the ecosystem.

When algae die and microbes decompose the algae, a lot of the oxygen in the water is depleted. Without a lot of oxygen in the water, aquatic plants and animals can’t survive. 

Algae can also be dangerous for animals and people swimming in the water who accidentally drink some of the water. 

“Microcystis is the algae that forms a bloom in the Western Basin of Lake Erie just about every summer,” said Lauren Kinsman-Costello, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Kent State University. “Microcystis releases microcystin, and it’s a hepatotoxin, which means it’s harmful for your liver.”

By preserving land and eliminating agricultural production surrounding the bog, harmful runoff into Lake Erie is decreased. 

“A lot of this project has been [done] through preservation, but also [through] taking some hayfields out of production,” Westerfield said. “Once the project is done, they will have reforested some parts and will have put some prairie back on the landscape and not into agricultural production.”

The bog is considered a carbon sink because it captures carbon dioxide stored in plants, not allowing the carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere via decomposition.  

“Bogs are wet, so there’s very little oxygen in the soil, and the microbes that do decomposition depend on oxygen,” Kinsman-Costello said. “So that organic material as plants die just accumulates year after year.”

When bogs are destroyed and the peat that makes up bogs, like the Bird Family Bog, is harvested and used as a resource, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming and climate change, further harming the environment and global ecosystems. 

Only 2% of peat bogs in Ohio are intact. The rest of the bogs have been destroyed for agricultural and residential purposes, according to the Ohio Water Resources Center at The Ohio State University’s College of Engineering. 

Over time, the amount of water in the bog has decreased, which has caused a change in the plant species that prosper. 

“With less water, successional plant species that are not bog plants, like red maple, have gotten established in the bog,” said Lang.

These successional plant species absorb a large amount of water that would otherwise be in the bog. 

Red maple trees in the bog shade bog species, not allowing them to absorb sunlight, which kills them. 

“Early restoration efforts to this point have included some contracted work,” Lange said. “Which has consisted of girdling the red maple trees, especially the larger ones that create a lot of shade.”

Girdling involves stripping a ring of bark and cambium off red maple trees, just below the lowest branches. 

With more sunlight, the rare bog plants that have died off in the bog because of the changing ecosystem may come back, Lange said. 

The park district is using a different technique to control other successional plant species that have become established in the bog. 

“Staff is controlling larger plants with cut stump herbicide treatments,” Lange said. 

Bogs are unique wetlands, with many different kinds of plants that don’t grow in other wetlands. 

“They tend to be dominated by mosses, like Sphagnum Moss. They’ll often have carnivorous plants, like Pitcher plants and Sundews,” Kinsman-Costello said. “Certain orchids only grow in bogs because they’re a specific kind of relatively harsh environment that only certain organisms are adapted to live in.”

Unique bog plant species can’t come back if invasive species that use up water and nutrients are present. 

“There are invasive species that have gotten into the bog, particularly glossy buckthorn,” Lange said. “Glossy buckthorn is being removed by hand pulling with staff, volunteers and KSU Conservation Biology students.”

The bog is important to the community because it can be used for educational and recreational purposes.

“I think making bogs accessible to people is a pretty low impact activity,” Kinsman-Costello said. “I think there’s value to people being able to see these unique systems, interact with them, recognize their value and have a relationship with them.”

The bog is part of a 171-acre property. Around the bog, there is wetland, tributary, a floodplain area and a three-acre farm pond, according to the West Creek Conservancy. 

H2Ohio, the West Creek Conservancy and the Portage Park District partnered to restore the bog. 

“Partnerships are always important on these [environmental rehabilitation projects] because there’s a tremendous cost that goes into these, so I don’t know if we [Rootstown Township] could have done it,” said Brett Housley, a trustee for Rootstown Township. “We’re very grateful for the forthcoming park district.”

The bog is closed, and there is no date as to when it will be open to the public.