Springville Marsh State Nature Preserve EarthCache
Springville Marsh State Nature Preserve
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Please use parking coordinates then proceed to the boardwalk.
Follow the cache coordinates to a sign.
Where you will take a photo of you and/or your gps with the sign visable and find the answer to the question.
You need to post this picture and email the measurements to both questions to me to claim the find.
STAY ON THE BOARDWALK AT ALL TIMES PLEASE.
The history of Northwest Ohio has been shaped by geology. How and when it was settled and by whom were the direct results of events occurring thousands of years ago. In that period, beginning a million years ago, great sheets of ice began to move southward into the United States.
These glaciers gouged soils and rocks, carried with them great quantities of clay, mud, sand, gravel and boulders frozen into the ice. As they receded, they buried the low hills of western Ohio under thick layers of glacial till, a mixture of sand, clay, gravel and boulders. The melting glaciers formed lakes which left several different shorelines recognizable as ridges.
The last glacier, passing through the region 10,000 years ago, deposited its glacial till in layers one to 90 feet thick. As the glacier melted, a broad river valley filled up with water, becoming Lake Erie. The outlet for glacial Lake Erie's water was frozen, and consequently the waters overflowed, forming a large backwater lake.
The waters, having to find another outlet, cut new streams to the Mississippi River drainage system; the Maumee River flowed over the water divide to join the Wabash River in Indiana. Into glacial Lake Erie came the soil eroded by the cutting actions of many streams. The silts and clays deposited a heavy layer of material over the impermeable glacial till. Deposited directly below was the sand; in some areas of Lucas county, sand is 15 to 30 feet thick
When the glacier left Northwest Ohio, its legacy was the Black Swamp, 30 miles wide and extending southwestward from Lake Erie to New Haven, Ind. Elm and ash trees quickly sprouted in this moist soil, eventually forming a dense forest. Standing water predominated. Even in the dry areas, water oozed out of the ground when stepped upon. Interspersed among the trees were wet prairies characterized by rushes, grasses and the high- bush cranberry
Springville Marsh is a remnant of the Big Spring Prairie once located in west central Ohio. 160 acre preserve is the largest inland wetland preserve in this part of Ohio. This area subsequently was drained and used for agriculture until 1937, when it became a source of "muck" used for fertilizer. Some plants became established here soon after the ice age. Fen orchids, bottle gentian, Kalm's lobelia and little yellow sedge make their home along with twig-rush and shrubby cinqeufoil. Sedge meadows, cattail marshes, and shrubby areas provide excellent cover and foraging opportunities for wildlife.
A marsh is a type of wetland that is full of water. Stop at the posted coordinates and take a photo of you and/or your gps with the sign visable. Post the picture.
Question - Use a yardstick or tape measure and measure the distance between the boardwalk and the ground. Notes the measurement of the standing water. Email me both measurements.
This is why this area is a marsh not a swamp, bog, fen or forested wetland. The marsh is very wet and delicate. STAY ON THE BOARDWALK AT ALL TIMES PLEASE, but do take time to observe the many beautiful plants and wildlife living and growing in the marsh.
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Treasures
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