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Wildlife Protection

Keeping It Simple: Easy Ways to Help Wildlife Along Roads

Creating a new wetland by not filling-in an old stream channel

The Ohio Department of Transportation created wetland habitat for birds and amphibians simply by not filling in part of an old stream channel. When the new, 15-mile-long Ravenswood Connector in Meigs County required 200 feet of Nease Creek to be realigned, Department biologists saw an opportunity. They recognized that once the project was finished, the small section would still receive water from overflowing streams and might become an "oxbow wetland" - a wetland formed when a waterway changes its course and flows into a new channel. So they instructed contractors to leave the section unfilled. The biologists were right. The abandoned stream-channel section did become an oxbow wetland, now regularly used by wood ducks, great blue herons, American toads, and other wildlife species.
 
--Apr 25, 2003

Ohio Department of Transportation photo

Created 'oxbow' wetland in Meigs County