Chippewa Creek Floodplain and Wetland Restoration

Project Description

In a design-build capacity, Biohabitats helped the West Creek Conservancy and a private landowner convert 48 acres of frequently flooded agricultural land into a rich wetland/riparian complex and functioning forested floodplain along Chippewa Creek, a tributary to the Tuscarawas River.

Once a forested wetland complex, the site began to be converted to farm fields in the 1700s. Over the next three centuries, to support the land's ongoing agricultural use, Chippewa Creek was straightened and channelized, groundwater flows were modified by drain tiles, and the landscape's natural hummocks and hollows were filled or removed. In partnership with the West Creek Conservancy, the landowner applied for and received an H2Ohio grant to restore the field back to forest, meadow and wetlands.

The design aimed to restore hydrology, landscape connectivity, habitat, and native forested, scrub-shrub, emergent and wet meadow wetland vegetation to the site while also improving water quality in Chippewa Creek and ultimately the Tuscarawas River. Implementation involved redirecting flows to interior wetlands, grading hummock and hollow microtopography, installing several large wood habitat structures, treating invasive species, and installing native forested, emergent, scrub-shrub, and wet meadow wetland vegetation.