Toadally Beneficial: Workshop on Wetlands and Wildlife June 3

MANSFIELD, Ohio — You’re in luck — and being helpful — if your land has a wetland, says Marne Titchenell, a wildlife specialist in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University.

“Wetlands are rare habitats that many plants and animals depend on,” she said. “Landowners who are willing to dedicate a portion of their land to a wetland are providing some much-needed homes for wildlife.”

She’ll co-teach a workshop on the topic June 3. Wetlands for Wildlife is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Ohio State’s Mansfield campus, 1760 University Drive. The sponsor is the college’s Ohio Woodland Stewards Program.

The event is for “landowners wanting to learn more about the wetlands on their property and how to manage them for wildlife,” Titchenell said. “It’s also for anyone else who wants to learn more about wetlands and how they’re important to wildlife.”

See vernal pool, more on Mansfield campus

The campus is an ideal setting for such a workshop, she said. Its 640 mostly wooded acres are home to a half dozen wetlands. One of those wetlands is a mitigated wetland, which is a wetland built to offset the loss of another one somewhere else. Another is a vernal pool, which means it usually dries up in summer.

The workshop’s classroom sessions will be followed by visits to those two particular wetlands. You can go into the vernal pool, too, if you bring your own waders.

The mitigated wetland, in fact, is located next to the campus’s Riedl Hall, which is where the classroom sessions will be. “It’s a beautiful wetland with native grasses and wildflowers planted along the edges,” Titchenell said.

The vernal pool, meanwhile, is the largest wetland on the campus.

“It’s in the woods, is surrounded by some impressive swamp white oaks and has a grove of buttonbush growing in it,” she said. “It’s also a breeding site for several species of woodland amphibians, including spotted salamanders and chorus frogs.”

Learn from 4 experts on managing wetlands

Three other experts will teach the workshop with Titchenell: Eugene Braig, the college’s aquatic ecosystems program director, Jennifer Hillmer of the Cleveland Metroparks and John Simpson of the Winous Point Marsh Conservancy in Port Clinton. They’ll cover, among other things, managing water levels, invasive plant species and the habitat needs of various wildlife, from frogs to toads and more.

A complete agenda and mailable registration form can be downloaded at go.osu.edu/June3Wetlands. You can also register online at go.osu.edu/June3WetlandsReg.

Registration is $35, includes lunch and is needed by May 27. For more information, call 614-688-3421.

The stewards program is run by Ohio State University Extension and is housed in the School of Environment and Natural Resources. Both are part of the college.

Coincidentally, the program is giving another workshop on the Mansfield campus the same day. Details on Name That Tree are at go.osu.edu/June3NameThatTree.