Saving Big Darby's Source

High quality wetlands along the Big Darby Creek will be protected and restored
©The Nature Conservancy

The fountainhead of the Big Darby Creek – the location considered to be the beginning of the stream’s permanent flow – has been protected for future generations by The Nature Conservancy as part of the Ohio Chapter’s Darby Headwaters project.

The Big Darby, a state and national scenic river and an important tributary to the Lower Scioto River, is a humble little creek here, not big enough to skip a stone across. But already, this half-mile stretch of waterway shows the promise of the Darby, considered by many to be one of the most biologically diverse streams of its size in the Midwest. The Darby is home to more than 100 species of fish and 43 kinds of freshwater mussels, including 37 species that are rare or otherwise endangered. Although the stream isn’t large enough at the headwaters to harbor many of these species, a Conservancy survey taken earlier this year found a fish called the central mottled sculpin, a good indicator of a healthy, coldwater stream kept fresh with a continued flow of groundwater.

The 166-acre parcel purchased by the chapter includes woods, wetlands and floodplain, the kind of lands that nourish and protect a stream.

“We’ve already been surprised by the diversity of plant and animal life we’ve found in the stream and in the quality of the surrounding wetlands,” said Anthony Sasson, the Conservancy’s Freshwater Policy Coordinator for Ohio. “It’s a gem, and the fact that this is part of a larger vision for the headwaters makes this a very important purchase.”

The project is part of a larger effort by the Conservancy and several state and federal partners to protect and restore stream habitat in the Darby’s headwaters in Logan and Union counties. Adding this most recent purchase brings the total to more than 650 acres of land protected in the headwaters, most of it by the Conservancy.

More than half of the land in this most recent purchase is being farmed, and some will continue to produce crops under agreements with the farmer. But Sasson said within a few years much of the floodplain will be restored to wetland and other native vegetation.

Threats in this area include agricultural runoff and changes to the stream flow created to aid farm drainage, and changing land use patterns caused by the steady growth of the auto industry in this area and related residential growth.

“This project will ensure that the highest priority area for conservation in the watershed – the corridor along the creek – will be protected and provide stream habitat and flood protection,” Sasson said.