Project Location

The project site is located along a stretch of Wolf Creek in the southeast corner of the Oregon Recreation Complex, owned by the City of Oregon. This section of Wolf Creek is less than a mile from Pearson Metropark and only three miles from its mouth into Lake Erie. The site’s adjacent land includes athletic fields, parking lots, agricultural fields, and bike paths.

Project Benefits

Coastal Lake Erie habitat was historically dominated by grassy and forested wetlands. Human activities dramatically altered this landscape, resulting in a loss of more than 90% of historic wetlands. The stream restoration on Wolf Creek will improve habitat for fish and benthos. Benthos are organisms that live in the sediment or near the bottom of a water body. Benthos make up the base of aquatic food systems and are vital to ecosystem health. Restoration of this coastal waterway provides the following benefits:

• Improves Wolf Creek stream morphology and a reduction in channel incision fosters new instream, floodplain, and wetland habitat for fish and benthos.
• Reduces sediment and agricultural runoff into Wolf Creek from unstable streambank slopes, improving overall water quality within the Maumee Area of Concern.
• Provides passive recreation and educational opportunities for recreational complex users via a new stone walking path and boardwalk platforms.

Project Objectives

• Improve 5,300 feet of streambank through regrading and vegetating.
• Improve sinuosity (curves and bends) of stream channel.
• Restore approximately 3.5 acres of floodplain habitat, including the creation of 1.5 acres of wetland.

Management Practices

• A two-stage channel design will stabilize eroding stream banks by shaping at a more stable 3:1 slope. Partway down the banks, a step covered with vegetation creates a supportive plateau, before sloping down gently again to reach the creek bed. Widening the creek bed itself will promote habitat features like meanders, pools, and riffles.
• The creation of 1.5 acre floodplain wetland approximately 1’ above baseflow elevation and directly connected to Wolf Creek to allow floodplain access during rain events.
• The project also reduces nonpoint source pollution by intercepting agricultural drainage and capturing nutrients and sediment, routing it through a constructed wetland system in the floodplain habitat.