Volume 40, Issue 2
CLICK HERE to read the PDF version
Table of Contents
Calendar
Please sign up to volunteer or attend these walks or events. Visit beavercreekwetlands.org/event
April
Signs of Spring #1
Saturday, Apr 4, 10:00am
Dave Nolin Wetland Reserve
All About Flowers
Saturday, Apr 11, 10:00am – 11:00am
EJ Nutter Park
Knollwood Garden Party Volunteer
Saturday, Apr 11, Shifts available
Signs of Spring #2
Monday, Apr 20, 6:00pm
Dave Nolin Wetland Reserve
Looking for Migrant Birds
Wednesday, Apr 29, 7:30am
Dave Nolin Wetland Reserve
May
38th Anniversary Celebration
Saturday, May 9, 11:00am – 1:30pm
DoubleTree Hotel, Fairborn
Residential Birds and Late Migrants
Monday, May 11, 7:30am
James P. Amon Biodiversity Reserve
Wellness Walkers
Thursday, May 14, 9:30am – 10:30am
Siebenthaler Fen
June
Wellness Walkers
Thursday, Jun 4, 9:30am – 10:30am
CarolLee Reserve/Dane Mutter Prairie
Native Plants: Nurturing Nature and Our Community
Saturday, Jun 13, 10:00am – 2:00pm
Coy Middle School, Beavercreek
Wetlands are Lord of the Flies! Butterflies, Damselflies and Dragonflies, that is
See if you can find these spring “fly” species in the Beaver Creek Wetlands.
President's Message
AI’s Hidden Footprint: Data Centers and the Future of Our Wetlands
Artificial intelligence (AI) has dominated headlines in recent years, promising new tools, economic growth, and technological breakthroughs. But behind the digital world of AI lies a very physical infrastructure: large data centers that require enormous amounts of electricity and, perhaps more surprisingly, vast quantities of water to operate and keep equipment cool.
Recently, plans were revealed to construct a data center near Cedar Bog Nature Preserve. For many in the environmental community, the announcement immediately raised concerns about how such a facility might affect nearby natural systems.
I first learned about Cedar Bog as a student at The Ohio State University. One of my botany classes took a field trip there to study plant life. Despite its name, Cedar Bog is not actually a bog at all. It is a fen, a rare type of wetland sustained by a delicate balance of groundwater flow producing mineral-rich springs. That unique hydrology supports an extraordinary diversity of plants and animals, including species rarely found elsewhere in Ohio.
Because fens depend so heavily on stable groundwater conditions, even small changes in the water table can have outsized consequences. The construction and operation of a large data center only a few miles from Cedar Bog has raised questions about how much water the facility might require and whether heavy groundwater withdrawals would alter the flow that sustains the fen. Environmental scientists and conservation advocates are not opposing technology itself, but they are asking an important question: how can development proceed without jeopardizing irreplaceable natural systems?
The issue reaches beyond Cedar Bog. Here in the Beaver Creek Wetlands, decades of work by volunteers, scientists, and conservation organizations have helped protect one of the region’s most valuable wetland ecosystems. Yet wetlands like those along Beaver Creek depend on the same fragile hydrologic balance that supports Cedar Bog. Even a well-protected wetland can be affected by forces beyond its boundaries if groundwater levels are significantly altered.
None of these means we should stand in the way of technological progress. Data centers, including those that power AI, are likely to remain an important part of the modern economy. But progress should not come at the expense of the natural systems that sustain biodiversity, manage floods, and preserve the ecological heritage of our region.
The real challenge, and opportunity, is to ensure that innovation and conservation move forward together. Careful site selection, transparent environmental review, and responsible water management can help ensure that new development coexists with the wetlands and natural areas that make our communities unique.
Protecting places like Cedar Bog and Beaver Creek Wetlands is not simply about preserving scenery. It is about protecting ecosystems that took thousands of years to develop and that, once lost, cannot easily be replaced. Thoughtful planning today can ensure that both technology and nature continue to thrive in Ohio for generations to come.
– Eric Marcus
Celebrate with BCWA
38th Anniversary Celebration and Annual Meeting
Saturday, May 9, 2026
DoubleTree Hotel
2800 Presidential Drive
Fairborn, OH 45324
You’re invited to BCWA’s 38th Anniversary Celebration to commemorate a fantastic year and discover the exciting path ahead.
11:00 am Reception with cash bar
11:30 am Lunch served
12:00 pm Program and Keynote Speaker
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Shauna Weyrauch
Bobcats are elusive, charismatic, and ecologically important carnivores. Habitat loss and over-harvesting led to their extirpation from Ohio by the mid-1800s, but in recent years, they have mounted a comeback. Beginning in 2015, Project Wild Coshocton (a research team at The Ohio State University at Newark) began documenting the distribution of bobcats in east-central Ohio using trail cameras. In this presentation, Dr. Shauna Weyrauch will discuss factors that have enabled bobcats to return, their current status in the state, the valuable role they play in ecosystems, as well as efforts underway to improve habitat for bobcats.
Shauna Weyrauch is a Senior Lecturer in the department of Evolution, Ecology & Organismal Biology at The Ohio State University at Newark, where she teaches courses in biology and humanitarian engineering. She earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biology from Wright State University, and her Ph.D. in EEOB from The Ohio State University. Her research interests lie in applied ecology/conservation biology, with topics ranging from wetland restoration to the effects of habitat fragmentation, to improving habitat for bobcats by creating artificial den sites. She co-founded Project Wild Coshocton in 2015, a research program that seeks to document the recovery of Ohio’s bobcat population and learn more about the species’ habitat requirements.
Photo by Allen McGrew
Ticket Information
Visit https://beavercreekwetlands.org/anniversary-celebration/ or scan the QR code to purchase tickets. Early bird ticket price is $30 until April 19, 2026. Tickets increase to $40 beginning April 20, 2026. Reservations are required by Monday, April 27, 2026.
Spring Warblers: Diversity of Color and Song
Among the many pleasures of springtime, the arrival of northbound migrant birds ranks high on the list. No group of birds exemplifies migration season better than the wood warblers. That family of birds, the Parulidae, includes about ten dozen species. Nearly a third of those appear in Ohio during springtime, and about a dozen species remain in Greene County through summer for the breeding season.
The parulids arriving in Ohio share a number of traits. They are small, about the size of a chickadee, with pointy little beaks that facilitate their insect diet. And they are migratory, breeding in the U.S. and/or Canada and wintering in the southern US to as far south as Central and South America. Only the yellow-rumped warbler, which can switch to eating fruit during colder months, routinely remains in Ohio through winter.
Despite those commonalities, the species are readily identifiable by sight and sound. Biologists refer to a lineage that has diversified into a bunch of related species as adaptive radiation. And adaptive radiation raises big biological questions: How do all those related species arise? And what keeps them separate and distinct?
The diversity of parulid warblers is believed to have arisen during the past 5 million years or so. During those millennia, including the Pleistocene ice ages, southward incursions of cold and inhospitable conditions created isolated populations of warblers. Those isolated populations accumulated a variety of new traits that prevented reproduction with ancestral-type birds, even when the populations subsequently re-encountered each other. This process happened repeatedly, and the result was a group of non-interbreeding populations – in other words, a bunch of warbler species.
The evolution of warbler migration seems to have been influenced by those same circumstances. Recent studies indicate that migration originated with northern populations of warblers, which moved south seasonally in search of insect foods.
As adaptive radiation evolves, the question is whether it can persist. How do the related species coexist in a common environment, and what prevents them from interbreeding and “washing out” any accumulated differences? Ecologists believe that for species to stably coexist within a shared community, they need to use the environment differently, a phenomenon called resource partitioning. How might warblers do that?
The adaptive radiation of parulid warblers is unusual in that it shows very little variation in body form or diet; they are all small, insect-eaters. Instead, they coexist based on other mechanisms. One of those is behavior, as famously studied in the 1950s by Robert MacArthur, one of the founders of the modern science of ecology. MacArthur observed five warbler species inhabiting Maine evergreens preferred different parts of the tree (e.g., high up vs. low down, interior vs. exterior), had different foraging habits (e.g., whether they fly out after insects), and differed in timing of peak activity. These subtle distinctions allow similar species to share the same space.
Parulid warblers maintain species diversity in another obvious way, too. Members of a species recognize each other using visual and auditory signals. Some of the species’ names reflect those visual patterns: black-throated green warbler, blue-winged warbler, and black and white warbler. The songs are equally distinct. As described by David Sibley, the locally breeding northern parula (Setophaga americana) sings “zeeeeeeeeeeee-tsup,” while the beautiful Blackburnian warbler (Setophaga fusca) which migrates through Ohio sings “tsi tsi tsi tsi tsi ti ti ti ti ti seeeeee.”
Three locally breeding species, all small, colorful, insectivores in the genus Setophaga, illustrate these patterns. The yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia) is bright yellow, with red streaking on the male’s breast. Yellow warblers prefer shrubby wetlands, and the males can be heard singing, “sweet sweet ti ti ti to soo,” from the branches of water-side willows. They are common throughout the Beaver Creek Wetlands.
Prairie warblers (Setophaga discolor) are also mostly yellow, though not as bright as yellow warblers. They also like shrubby habitat but prefer second-growth such as meadows and young woodlands rather than wetlands. Oakes Quarry is a good place to find them, where their song rings out: “Zooo zoo zo zozozozoZEEET!”
And yellow-throated warblers (Setophaga dominica), one of the earliest species to arrive in Ohio, have bodies handsomely striped in black and white, with brilliant yellow throats. They are closely associated with sycamore trees, and watching them sing from the high treetops, “teedl teedl teedl teedl teedl teedl teedl tew tew twee,” is a great way to earn a case of “warbler neck.” Look at and listen for them at Beaver Creek Wetlands Reserve, or anywhere with sycamores.
Warblers are small enough that it’s easy to overlook them. But the arrival of these colorful, musical, active birds is highly anticipated each year. The combination of colors, songs, and habits provides clues to finding them. Early May, before trees fully leaf out, is prime time for warblering. To quote the magnolia warbler (Setophaga magnolia), “sweeter sweeter SWEETEST!!”
– David Goldstein
According to https://birdinghotspots.org/region/US-OH-057/hotspots, most of the locations along the Beaver Creek Wetland corridor are listed as “hotspots.”
A Season of Growth and Renewal
Weather slowed progress in February, but important work continued across several preserves. At Siebenthaler Fen, volunteers continued reconstruction of Nan’s Tower on the few workable days, and it is almost ready for public use. The next phase of building the connecting boardwalk will begin once the adjacent loop is completed. Spotted Turtle Trail project manager Ken Moran estimates that Siebenthaler Fen will reopen mid to late May.
With improving conditions, March work is underway at James P. Amon Biodiversity Reserve. Crews have started prairie mowing in the well-drained northern section. Annual mowing around tree plantings is complete, and maintenance has begun around the purple martin birdhouses near the New Germany Trebein Road parking lot to enhance habitat ahead of their return.
Work will soon expand to Dane Mutter Prairie and CarolLee Reserve, where flatter terrain offers ideal conditions for safe equipment use and training new operators. Additional efforts included seed spreading at the Monarch Waystation and a volunteer workday at Zimmerman Prairie State Nature Preserve, where nine volunteers chipped previously cut woody material.
– Skip Beehler
Eagle Scout Project by Abigale Callahan
A Season of Growth and Renewal
A half-acre of land at Koogler Wetland Prairie Reserve was restored during the summer of 2025 with the help of 25 volunteers. The goal of the project was to remove invasive narrow-leaf cattails and replant the land with native wetland sedges and other wetland plants common in the Beaver Creek Wetland corridor. The steps of the project were split into three workdays. The first of which, June 17, 2025, was dedicated to clearing the worksite of the invasive cattails that crowd Koogler Reserve. The cattails were snipped down a few inches above the muddy surface with hand pruners, hedge trimmers, and Skip Beehler’s weedwhacker. When the cattails started to pile up, volunteers used tarps and wheelbarrows to carry the leaves to a pile outside the worksite for recycling.
The second workday, July 19, started with retrimming the cattails, which had grown since the previous workday, and extending the worksite a few feet to prepare them for treatment with herbicide. The cattails were removed with tarps and wheelbarrows, like the first workday. All the decomposing leaves from June and the fresh leaves were hauled away on trailers. Then the rest of the work time was used to treat the trimmed cattails with an herbicide called glyphosate. The herbicide was applied to the cut part of the plant using daubers to limit the spread of the herbicide. The cattails were re-cut and treated in July after they were initially cut in June, so that the cattails would exert energy trying to regrow, then when they had slowed down in their growth, herbicide could be applied, and it would be sent to the roots, killing the whole plant.
The third and final workday, August 17, was for replanting the land that had been cleared. About 40 species of 6-month-old native sedges and other wetland plants that Dr. Amon had been growing at his house were planted. This was done so the invasive cattails would not regrow as quickly, and to let the plants spread and compete against cattails over time.
I would like to thank all of the volunteers who helped with this project. Many volunteers helped with all three workdays. This project was offered to me by Dr. Amon, who helped me during each stage of this project.
– Abigale Callahan
According to Dr. Amon, the application was to the stump of each plant. The cattails, at this point in July, were weak since 90% of the leaves that make food for the cattail were gone. The herbicide goes down into the roots, where the plant stores food for the next growing season. This kills the whole plant. Experience on similar projects tells us that we usually miss some cattails, so it will take about three treatments to kill them all.
This project at Koogler Wetland/Prairie Reserve, owned by Greene County Parks & Trails, is part of a multi-year effort to increase biodiversity in the Beaver Creek Wetlands.
Interactive Map Launching April 15
Something new is coming to the Beaver Creek Wetlands! On April 15, we’re launching an interactive digital map of the entire corridor, powered by Engage by Cell. Explore trails, track your location in real time, share photos, and report trail issues—all from your phone. Access it on our website or by scanning QR codes at park entrances.
Thank you to our volunteers for identifying location points and testing the map and to the Dayton Foundation and Greene County Convention & Visitors Bureau for their generous support. We can’t wait for you to try it!
A Year in the Creek, 2025 Water Quality Results
In 2025, Beaver Creek Wetland Association volunteers and four dedicated team leads donned waders and boots to monitor our local water health in both June and September. Using dipnets and seine nets, teams collected and classified macroinvertebrates at Dave Nolin Wetland Reserve (DNWR), Hagenbuch Reserve, the Little Miami River/Beaver Creek convergence, and Phillips Park to calculate stream quality scores using ODNR’s SQM system.
Phillips Park recorded the highest spring cumulative index value (CIV) of 23 (“Excellent”), though it shifted to 18 by September (Figure). Hagenbuch (19 /18) and LMR/BC (19\16) remained fairly stable, while DNWR held steady with a CIV of 7.
In addition to counting macroinvertebrates, teams used the ProDSS digital meter to test different parameters. The fall chemical parameter readings confirm these waters are within healthy standards. Dissolved Oxygen levels averaged 8.09-8.55 mg/L, which is ideal for aquatic life. The pH levels between 7.73-7.84 remains safely within the EPA’s 6.5-9.0 range. Temperatures varied from a cool 62.08 degrees Fahrenheit at Phillips Park to 68.74 degrees at Hagenbuch. While Total Dissolved Solids with a range of 147-756 mg/L, were well below the 1,500 mg/L freshwater limit, DNWR stood out with higher turbidity (level of cloudiness of the water) of 69.41, indicating more suspended particles than other sites, yet it is still within acceptable levels. Increased turbidity in a creek is primarily caused by suspended particles like sediment, soil, algae, or organic matter. Major causes include storm runoff, soil erosion, agricultural runoff, construction, and high-water velocities stirring up bottom sediment. Although we cannot pinpoint the direct cause of this result, we will continue to monitor the area for out-of-range readings. Every sample is valuable, but no single sample tells the whole story. After a few more collections, we can share comparative results over time to tell a more complete story.
Beaver Creek Wetlands Association extends sincere thanks to the Clinton County Foundation’s Fred Anliot Fund for supporting this project through 2025–2026. We’re grateful to Gracie Norris for her time and dedication as a team leader at the Monarch Waystation/ Hagenbuch location over the past two years. We’re excited to welcome Mark Bryne as a new team lead, joining Natasha Miller, Lisa Oakley, and Kevin Riley for the 2026 season.
Interested in getting your feet wet with community science? Volunteer sign-ups for our late spring water quality monitoring sessions will be shared soon on our events page and through our email list.
Your support and participation help power this work. By tracking water quality trends yearly, we strengthen our ability to protect riparian habitats and ensure Beaver Creek continues to thrive.
– Shandah Brannen
Education Coordinator
Wetland Hikes
Trash Talk
Originally published in The Spotted Turtle, Volume 35, Issue 2, Spring/Summer 2021, by Lois Gschwender
This abridged reprint still applies today!
Growing up I recall many PSAs (Public Service Announcements) about, “Don’t be a litter bug!” Now, not so much. I also recall very positive publicity about First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, an early environmentalist largely unrecognized today, interested in beautification by planting trees and flowers and by picking up trash.
Early spring is an ideal time to pick up trash along the wetlands adjacent to the interstates. Without a lot of foliage, we can see and get to the debris much easier than once the plants have leafed out. Unfortunately, the Beaver Creek Wetland corridor and US-35 and I-675 are very close in many places.
It’s easy for me to feel miffed and self-righteous picking up other people’s trash. With all the thousands of cars that travel there, even if 0.5% throw something out, it’s a lot of garbage! I’ve had fantasies of boxing up debris from the company with the most discarded items and mailing it back with a sarcastic note that they must have lost this stuff since it has their name on it. But I don’t.
The most common items we gather are beverage containers, glass and plastic bottles and aluminum cans. If it is not too dirty, we recycle these. Also common are fender-bender debris and lots and lots of cigarette butts. In the years I have been a volunteer I have noticed less fast-food packaging because, thankfully, many companies have gone away from Styrofoam to biodegradable paper and thin cardboard. Styrofoam is especially difficult because after a few months in the weather, when I try to get a piece with my BCWA-provided grabbing tool, a tiny chunk breaks off, and the rest stays half buried. This means reaching down and trying to get up all of the little white pieces by hand. Even though Styrofoam breaks into little pieces, it biodegrades very slowly so anything left will be there long after I’m gone.
At the end of the work session, we have a large pile of trash bags for someone to pick up and take to a Greene County landfill. I recently visited Montgomery County Solid Waste Facility and was appalled to see the bulldozers pushing around our waste at the landfill. But that’s another story. At least we removed the trash from the wetlands and improved the aesthetics for people to enjoy.
Other thoughts about trash: A few years ago, I was walking in the Little Beaver Creek along Woodman Drive with Dr. Jim Amon trying to find a drainage tile from an adjacent farm field. The creek was behind the Dayton Regional STEM School in what used to be a Gold Circle store. The creek was full of rusted shopping carts and a lot of other trash. Homeless people were occupying sites there as well. I was feeling sad and distressed that it looked that way when Jim remarked effusively that the creek was so pristine! We were obviously looking with different eyes. Similarly, out with an amphibian specialist, she remarked that plastic butter bowls (trash to me) made great toad houses!
So those are my somewhat related thoughts about trash. I wouldn’t miss getting outdoors with Beaver Creek Wetlands Association friends to make improvements to the sites and to increase enjoyment for the visitors.
– Lois Gschwender
Volunteer crew leaders Lois Gschwender, Kenny Cole and Jeff Schimer led the first cleanup for the 2026 season. Kids from Trail Life and their parents picked up trash near Zimmerman Prairie State Nature Preserve. These photos are from their volunteer event.
Wetland Wows!
Board of Trustees
David Goldstein
Patrick Higgins
Eric Marcus, President
Austin Miller, Vice President
Ken Moran
Rob Ranzau, Treasurer
Shirlene Vonderheide, Secretary
Executive Director
Jacki Mayer
jmayer@beavercreekwetlands.org
Outreach Director
Beth Edsall
bedsall@beavercreekwetlands.org
Administrative and Education Coordinator
Shandah Brannen
sbrannen@beavercreekwetlands.org
Board President
Eric Marcus
president@beavercreekwetlands.org
Technical Advisor
James Amon
technical@beavercreekwetlands.org
Have a question about the wetlands or its inhabitants? Ask Dr. Amon!
Spotted Turtle Newsletter
bedsall@beavercreekwetlands.org
Newsletter Editors
Carol Amon, Jim Amon, Beth Edsall, Lois Gschwender and Ed Snyder
Newsletter Creator
Beth Edsall
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