Lake Erie’s Sandusky Bay is one of the largest drowned river mouths in the Great Lakes at nearly 64 square miles, and it provides extensive ecological services as well as significant value to local identity and economics. The Bay historically supported widespread, diverse coastal wetlands supporting birds, amphibians, important fish spawning and nursery habitat, and more. Today, these wetlands and their benefits have largely been lost, and the Bay is plagued by high levels of turbidity and algal blooms.
In response, the State of Ohio Office of Coastal Management launched the Sandusky Bay Initiative (SBI), an ambitious, landscape-scale effort to restore holistic Bay functions for the benefit of both wildlife and people. This resulted in significant necessary research, fieldwork, and collaboration to understand existing conditions, impairments, and complex physical and biological Bay interactions, which informed models that enabled the team to evaluate intervention strategy effectiveness. Ultimately, The Nature Conservancy, with funding from H2Ohio, has developed a suite of innovative, synergistic projects aimed at reducing internal Bay sediment resuspension to facilitate wetland function reestablishment and maximize nutrient assimilation. A number of the projects have been funded and are underway. This presentation summarizes efforts that guided the comprehensive Bay restoration approach, as well as the innovative projects.
