McCoy State Nature Preserve

Wayne Township, Ashtabula County
215 acres

Natural Areas Division Coordinator Jim Bissell first surveyed Pymatuning Creek Fen in 1983. He found several endangered species on the property that occur at only one or two other places in the state. Pymatuning Creek Fen was the first Museum preserve within the Ohio River drainage basin.

Pymatuning Creek Fen is host to many unusual northern plants called relict species, left behind from glacial ice fronts that receded about 12,000 years ago. One such species is spreading globe flower (Trollius laxus). Its pale, yellow blossoms are rarely seen in eastern North America; they survive at only about 40 widely scattered sites in North American and at only two sites in Ohio.

Invertebrates that live in the fen often are just as rare as the plants growing in this special alkaline wetland habitat. Setting aside Pymatuning Creek Fen helped to protect a state-endangered mollusk, clubshell (Pleurobema clava). The clubshell has since become a Federally-Endangered species with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. As a fundamental part of the food chain, these small bivalves are critical indicators of the overall health of stream ecosystems. Records showed that the Federally-Endangered clubshell, along with four other endangered or threatened mollusks, existed in the Pennsylvania section of Pymatuning Creek prior to 1919. These populations have long since disappeared, probably as a result of sand and gravel mining operations. In 1983, however the Federally-Endangered clubshell was found in the sandy riffles just 1 mile downstream from Pymatuning Creek Fen.

In 2000, Museum staff and members of the Ohio Odonata Society found brush-tipped emerald (Somatochlora walshii) at Pymatuning Creek Fen. This is the only site in Ohio for the rare dragonfly.

Developer Provided Wetlands Mitigation Funds

Some of the funds for purchase of the preserve came from the developer of a residential project in Summit County. Under federal guidelines of the Clean Water Act, developers who want to build on sites classified as wetlands are required to guarantee "no net loss" of natural resources. Wetlands lost to development must be replaced at a one-to-one ratio either on site or elsewhere. Any mitigation plan proposed by a developer must be approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state agencies.

The plan proposed by Sunrise Land Company (a subsidiary of Forest City Enterprises) was approved and the Museum's Natural Areas Division set a precedent by becoming the first conservation organization in Ohio to acquire land with the aid of such wetland mitigation monies.