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Morgan Swamp
 This wetland heritage of an ancient glacial lake is located in Ashtabula County © Richard Baumer |
Why You Should Visit Located in the Western Allegheny Plateau, Morgan Swamp is one of a series of wetlands that occur on stream terraces along the Grand River Lowlands. Some 12,000 years ago, the area was occupied by a glacial lake which deposited silt and clay ranging in depth from 5 to 50 feet. The impermeable clay soils plus the low relief of the area result in conditions conducive for the formation of swamp forest, marshes, sphagnum bogs, sedge meadows, and beaver ponds.
The Morgan Swamp area is a 2000-acre remnant of a five-square-mile swamp that existed at the time of European settlement. By the beginning of this century the entire area had been impacted by logging, draining where possible, peat fires, and farming. For the past 80 years, the swamp has remained relatively undisturbed. This period of farm abandonment, accompanied by old field and forest succession, and the reestablishment of beaver in the area, has resulted in the recovery of this ecosystem. The Nature Conservancy began acquiring portions of the swamp in 1985 and currently protects approximately 1,000 acres at Morgan Swamp.
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Location
Ashtabula County, west of the Grand River in an area formerly occupied by a glacial lake within the Western Allegheny Plateau Ecoregion.
Hours
Open year-round, dawn to dusk.
Conditions
Open to the public for activities such as birdwatching, photography, and hiking. Please stay on the trail and overlook to avoid trampling sensitive species.
Directions
From the north:
- From Interstate 90, travel south on State Route 534 for about 7 miles to its junction with
- Travel east on
From the south:
- From U.S. Route 6, take State Route 45 north for about 3.2 miles to
- Travel west on Footville-Richmond for about 1.6 miles to the
What to See: Plants
Morgan Swamp is host to a Hemlock-White Pine-Hardwood Swamp community. Also found here are:
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Painted trillium
- Wild calla
- Brownish sedge
- Pale sedge
- Pipsissewa
- Bunchberry
- Clinton's wood fern
- Lesser bladderwort
What to See: Animals
115 bird species, 24 fishes, 26 reptiles, and 24 mammals, including:
What to See: Birds
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Virginia rail
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Yellow-bellied sapsucker
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Least bittern
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Common moorhen
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Cerulean Warbler
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Marsh wren
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Sedge wren
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Sharp-shinned hawk
What to See: Reptiles, amphibians, crustaceans & insects
- Eastern massasauga rattlesnake
- Spotted turtle
- Four-toed salamander
- Great Lakes crayfish
- Silver-bordered fritillary
- Chalk-fronted corporal
What to See: Mammals
- Bobcat
- River otter
- Beaver
- Snowshoe hare
Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
Morgan Swamp is one of the largest privately-protected wetlands in Ohio. It is significant for its size, its proximity to the Grand River, and its dynamic and self-sustaining swamp ecosystem. A faunal survey in the 1980s revealed 108 bird species, 24 fishes, 26 reptiles, and 24 mammals. There are numerous rare species recorded from the swamp area, many of which are associated with boreal habitats and are near the southern edge of their ranges in North America.
The greatest concerns relative to the long-term health of the swamp relate to the protection of the overall Grand River watershed. Short-term threats are destruction of adjacent wetlands, logging within the floodplain and upland forest communities, illegal or unauthorized use of the preserve for recreational purposes, and invasive species such as phragmites, reed canarygrass, and glossy buckthorn.
What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
The ecological goals at Morgan Swamp are to maintain the ecosystem function in and around the preserve and protect the rare species populations and communities within the preserve. To achieve these goals, The Nature Conservancy has continued to expand the preserve through additional land acquisition and to work with partners on conservation issues in the Grand River watershed. Efforts are underway to sustain the unique nature of the plant and animal communities through invasive species control.
