Two with Nature

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.

~ John Burroughs

Sure I’m into bright lights and big cities, but there’s also something to be said for circumventing the hustle and bustle, getting off the beaten path and, as in this case, instead wandering a boardwalk trail.  Sometimes the unplanned and unexpected prove to be the most rewarding.

As we traveled the Lake Erie coastline and passed through Port Clinton, we happened upon a sign for the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area and decided it warranted a stop.

In 1903, Ohioan John N. Magee acquired 2,700 acres of marshland to dike off and drain the marsh to use its fertile soil for agricultural purposes. After several years of high lake levels, farming the area became impossible. Realizing the habitat was ideal for waterfowl and furbearers, he allowed it to revert back to marshland for muskrat trapping and waterfowl hunting.

During the 1920’s through 1940, Magee Marsh was leased to an exclusive group of men from Detroit for duck hunting. In 1940, the Magee family sold the marshland to the Magee Marsh Hunt Club, but damage to dikes and channels caused by continued high lake levels made maintenance costly. In 1951 the Ohio Department of Natural Resources purchased 1,821 acres. The land was divided between the Division of Wildlife, which created a public hunting area—the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area—and the Division of Parks and Recreation, which created Crane Creek State Park to allow swimming on a portion of the beach. In June 2008, the state park was closed and the remaining land transferred to increase the size of the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area. The marsh is one of the few remaining wetland complexes on the Lake Erie shoreline, and what was once the state park beach area is now reverting to wildlife beach.

The 26,000-acre marsh is ideal for bird watching and one of the most important concentration areas in Ohio for small birds. More than 300 species have been recorded in the area. This results from a combination of geography, abundant food supply, and the fact that the birds are reluctant to cross Lake Erie. In addition, large flocks of migrating waterfowl can be seen from March through April and October through November.

As we traversed the handicap-accessible boardwalk which meanders through the area (LOVE this feature!), we crossed paths with many marshland inhabitants: blue herons, egrets, ducks, raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, muskrats and turtles.

Songbirds flitted and warbled, frogs splashed and croaked.

It was very peaceful and serene. As Mark so profoundly noted, he’d much rather spend his time exploring the Lake Erie coastline this way than battling the holiday crowds in harbor towns.

I couldn’t have agreed more.