wetland restoration

September 30, 2025
Published by MAD Scientist Associates, LLC on September 30, 2025
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Mark Leads Tour of Wilderness Center Wetland for Land Trust Alliance Rally

At MAD, we’re happy to leave our mark on restoration sites, figuratively and literally. In September, Mark met with a group from the Land Trust Alliance Rally to lead a tour of our wetland project at The Wilderness Center. We’re thrilled with how things are coming along, as this is the first full growing season for the site. This project includes 13.5 acres of wetland, riparian, and upland habitat that are being improved. 3+ acres of new wetland were added, as well as several acres of existing wetland enhancement. The site was formerly farmed by the family of a neighboring landowner and now enters a new chapter in which it will play a key role in improving water quality within the Sugar Creek Watershed and […]
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September 30, 2025
Published by MAD Scientist Associates, LLC on September 30, 2025
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MAD Wins Oak Openings Corridor Project with Metroparks Toledo!

The Oak Openings Region is one of the most biologically diverse and ecologically unique areas in the Great Lakes region. Its plant life reflects a rare intersection of eastern deciduous forests, western prairies, and northern boreal habitats, all shaped by glacial history and sandy, well-drained soils. We’re so excited to contribute to conservation efforts in this globally unique habitat! Approximately 50 acres of fallow field (previously farmed) will be restored to emergent marsh and shrub-carr wet meadow wetlands, and sand prairie habitats. This will be our fifth project in the Oak Openings, totalling nearly 400 acres of restored habitat! We hope you’ll follow along with the restoration progress!
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December 27, 2022
Published by MAD Scientist Associates, LLC on December 27, 2022
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Staff Appreciation & Bragging Rights

Each year, we are amazed and grateful for our amazing staff. Not only do they come to each other’s aid, put the hours in, problem solve, and challenge themselves- they keep each other laughing while doing it. We are truly lucky to have such a great team and we wanted to share some of their accomplishments from the year with you. Julius Duncan, Water Resources Engineer and EIT, joined our team in 2021 and recently earned his Level 2 Stream Restoration certificate. His background in environmental engineering and water resource management suits him well on the restoration team at MAD. He and Robert Keast, Restoration Designer, hit the ground running this year and have been instrumental in tackling our wetland and stream restoration projects across […]
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December 27, 2022
Published by MAD Scientist Associates, LLC on December 27, 2022
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Governor DeWine Visits H2Ohio-Funded Site

Chris and Mark had the surprise of Governor DeWine visiting a wetland design/build site of ours (partnered with Access Engineering) in Mercer County to observe and promote the successes of the statewide H2Ohio program. The 89-acre Burntwood-Langenkamp site is owned by the Lake Facilities Authority and is managed by Mercer County. The request was for a treatment train style wetland that would intercept water from a channelized waterway (Burntwood Creek) and have water filter through over a mile of meandering marsh before reentering Coldwater Creek (immediately upstream of the confluence with Burntwood) and merging into Grand Lake St. Mary’s. We were able to create/restore 32-acres of emergent marsh habitat and reforest 10-acres and add prairie seed to surrounding uplands as a buffer to the stream […]
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December 27, 2022
Published by MAD Scientist Associates, LLC on December 27, 2022
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Wetland Construction Underway in Geauga County

We have our first in-lieu fee wetland mitigation project under construction in Geauga County! This 30-acre site was previously row-cropped and pastured but is part of a larger (119-acre) property that contains a mosaic of depressional wetlands, ephemeral and perennial streams, and upland forest. Our design for this project will restore/add 8 acres of depressional, forested wetlands, and 18 acres forested buffer. Interesting elements of the design for this site include the repurposing of stones from a demolished barn to create a snake hibernaculum, using deadwood and felled trees for perching and basking habitat, and experimental hummock creation within pools. We have had reports of sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis), a state threatened species, already utilizing the site presumably as stopover habitat during their fall migration […]
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January 11, 2022
Published by MAD Scientist Associates, LLC on January 11, 2022
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Burntwood-Langenkamp H2Ohio “Treatment Train” Wetland Constructed

Grand Lake St. Mary’s (GLSM) is located in northwest Ohio, in a heavily agricultural watershed that produces a significant portion of our state’s grains and livestock. Runoff from row crop agriculture and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) has resulted in excessive nutrient loading to the lake, resulting in an increased frequency of harmful algal blooms (HABs). The proliferation of HABs can make the lake unsafe for swimming and adversely affects tourism, and this causes a damaging ripple effect on the local economy. Significant efforts by farmers and local officials have been ongoing since the HABs first appeared, and the lake conditions have been improving as a result of these efforts. Catalyzing these efforts, the State of Ohio has created the H2Ohio grant program to assist […]
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January 11, 2022
Published by MAD Scientist Associates, LLC on January 11, 2022
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High School Learning Opportunity at Oak Openings Wetland Restoration Site

In November, our team met with the Aerospace & Natural Science Academy of Toledo, Metro Parks Toledo, and the Ohio DNR at our wetland restoration project in the Oak Openings region to discuss the process of wetland restoration, tour the site, and plant native hydophytes that the students grew themselves! We were pleased to see this site with beautiful wetland pools and the blush of cover crop on the upland buffer. We were also reveling in the ease of planting in sandy soils that are so common in northwest Ohio! It’s always fun to share our profession and projects with curious minds and we hope they’ll remember this experience and return to the site to see how their plants grow.
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January 11, 2022
Published by MAD Scientist Associates, LLC on January 11, 2022
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Sandhill Crane Wetlands Project- Our Largest Construction Project to Date

Our largest wetland restoration to date is the Sandhill Crane Wetlands in the Oak Openings Region near Toledo, Ohio. Construction on this project was substantially complete by the end of 2021. We worked with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and B Hill’z Excavating to achieve this restoration on 280 acres of former farmland. For decades, this massive field has been used for conventional row crop agriculture. To be successful, these farming operations along the northern edge of the former Great Black Swamp required intensive water management. The land is flanked by deep ditches on three sides that help to lower the water table and improve drainage, and in the winter and spring, the former farmer would run multiple pumps to pull water from the field’s drainage […]
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