Beaver Marsh

Cuyahoga Valley National Park has been designated as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by the National Audubon Society and has long been recognized by birders as an ideal area for observing birds. There have been about 240 species documented in the park. The Beaver Marsh, located along the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail north of Ira Trailhead, is a favorite location for watching wetland birds and other wildlife. Before beaver flooded this area two decades ago, it had been a junkyard which The Portage Group of the Sierra Club cleaned up in 1984. The National Park Service has documented over 1,500 wetlands at Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Non-native invasive plant species and pollution are identified as the major management issues for the park. Wetlands provide numerous ecological services and are important sites of biodiversity, providing habitat for nearly half of all endangered species. As natural floodwater storage sites, wetlands store and assimilate nutrients and reduce stream erosion and storm water-caused flooding. Unfortunately, over half of the wetlands in the United States have been destroyed over the past two centuries. Roughly 90% of wetlands in Ohio have been eliminated.