Big Day for Standing Rush

The WRE easement would protect just over 200 acres of our East Marsh; the image above shows most of the easement area
-- the 100-acre "Dinky Track" in the foreground, the ~75-acre "Tower Marsh" in the center of the image,
and the estuary that connects both units to Sandusky Bay (in the far background)

Yesterday marked another milestone for this restoration and conservation project -- and it's arguably the most significant to date. For the last twenty-one months, we have been actively pursuing enrollment into what is formally called the Wetland Reserve Easement (WRE) program. It is funded through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), specifically through the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and more specifically through the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP).

A new collaborative partner in conservation
and preservation of the marsh

Wow . . . that's a lot of acronyms! But what does it mean? Essentially, the WRE program is a federal means by which private landowners can work cooperatively with the federal government to formally (legally) protect high quality and/or highly restorable wetland habitat for a predetermined duration (30 years) or, as is the case with our pursuit, forever (protection "in perpetuity").

In our situation, Standing Rush was invited to vie for funds within Ohio's competitive program to enroll a finite number of acres into a perpetual conservation easement. This is essentially a legally binding agreement whereby a landowner is incentivized -- often through compensation on a per acre basis -- in exchange for forfeiting or significantly restricting the ability to develop the land (or water) in conventional ways. The ultimate goal is to protect conservation values. Ownership of the land itself does not change (i.e., the land is not sold); but the residential and/or commercial development rights on the land are relinquished.

While we have carefully considered multiple programs that can achieve similar outcomes, we decided to apply for an easement on ~205 acres of our East Marsh through WRE. We feel that this program's motives can be consistent with our long-term vision for the habitat. We can continue to manage the property as we have, and can continue to utilize the property recreationally. Even the hunting heritage on the site can be preserved. As the timeline (21 months and counting!) makes clear, this is a painstaking process. But yesterday, we cleared several major hurdles: (1) we were formally accepted into the program, (2) we received a formal offer for the easement, and (3) we signed and received signatures formally approving the offer.

These are very big steps toward the permanent protection of more than a third of our marsh, but we still have a ways to go. Now that we are legally under contract with the USDA, the funds have been set aside, but we still have to provide a clear title, complete a survey and related due diligence (largely the USDA's effort), and close on the easement. These steps could take as little as 6-12 months or as much as two more years. This is much like any other real estate transaction -- it can get complicated, and the path can often be full of twists and turns. But this is a step in a very positive direction, and we are excited about all that lies ahead!

This overview shows the area west of the highway (above) that would be under easement to protect the connection between
the marsh and the open bay -- protecting the narrow "South Estuary" (center, left of image) insures preservation of the source water

NOTE: As the summary above makes clear, we will continue to have plenty to chew on to move this specific conservation effort to completion. One of our priorities, however, will need to be continuing to assess all conservation tools to determine how to best legally protect the balance of this precious wetland habitat.