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Great Black Swamp
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Great Black Swamp
The Great Black Swamp (or Black Swamp) was a glacially fed wetland in northwest Ohio, northeast Indiana, and southeast Michigan that existed from the end of the Wisconsin glaciation until the late 19th century. Comprising extensive swamps and marshes interspersed with drier ground, it occupied what was formerly the southwestern part of proglacial Lake Maumee, a precursor to Lake Erie.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources stated the swamp covered 3,072,000 acres (1,243,194 ha). Other estimates claim it was 25 miles (40 km) wide and 100 miles (160 km) long, and covered 1,500 square miles (4,000 km2); or 6,700 square kilometres (2,600 sq mi).
The swamp was drained between 1859 and 1885 to become highly productive farmland, but its agricultural runoff has degraded the environment. This causes frequent harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie.
According to 19th-century land surveys and current Geographic Information System (GIS) presettlement vegetation maps, the swamp existed within the Maumee, Ottawa, Portage, and Sandusky watersheds, and in the River Raisin's southern headwaters. Its boundary was determined by ancient sandy beach ridges formed on proglacial lake shores, after glacial retreat thousands of years ago. It extended from Fort Wayne, Indiana to the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge along the Lake Erie shore.
The vast swamp was a mosaic of deciduous forests, wetlands, and prairies shaped by terrain and drainage. Lower elevations hosted swamps, with species such as ash, elm, cottonwood and sycamore. Marshes, fens, wet meadows, and wet prairies were also present, especially along the Lake Erie shoreline east of Toledo. Slightly higher elevations hosted mesic species such as beech, maples, basswood, and tuliptree. Dry ridges (moraines) hosted xeric species, like oak and hickory.
Current wetlands such as the Okefenokee Swamp, the Great Dismal Swamp, the Atchafalaya Swamp, and the Everglades suggest the importance of the biodiversity within the ecosystems of the former Great Black Swamp region. Species once common within and around the swamp are now listed by Ohio as threatened, endangered, or extinct.
The Great Black Swamp's history exemplifies how Indigenous peoples were forcibly removed and ecosystems destroyed for development. In recent years, attention has grown to the history of the swamp and other destroyed environments, including California's Tulare Lake, contributing to important policies on wetland conservation (American and international), natural resource management, wildlife conservation, and global efforts to prevent forced Indigenous removal, pollution, environmental disasters, ecosystem collapse, and extinction.
The Laurentide ice sheet covered northeast Indiana, northwest Ohio, and southeast Michigan during the Last Glacial Period, reaching estimated heights of 300 to 500 meters (984 to 1,640 feet) near the Great Lakes and up to two miles elsewhere. Following its gradual retreat about 24,000 years ago, it left behind Lake Maumee. The Maumee Torrent drained the lake catastrophically 14,000 to 17,000 years Before Present (BP). The ice sheet and mega-flood dramatically shaped the regional landscape, effects now visible in Lidar-based DEM imagery.
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Great Black Swamp
The Great Black Swamp (or Black Swamp) was a glacially fed wetland in northwest Ohio, northeast Indiana, and southeast Michigan that existed from the end of the Wisconsin glaciation until the late 19th century. Comprising extensive swamps and marshes interspersed with drier ground, it occupied what was formerly the southwestern part of proglacial Lake Maumee, a precursor to Lake Erie.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources stated the swamp covered 3,072,000 acres (1,243,194 ha). Other estimates claim it was 25 miles (40 km) wide and 100 miles (160 km) long, and covered 1,500 square miles (4,000 km2); or 6,700 square kilometres (2,600 sq mi).
The swamp was drained between 1859 and 1885 to become highly productive farmland, but its agricultural runoff has degraded the environment. This causes frequent harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie.
According to 19th-century land surveys and current Geographic Information System (GIS) presettlement vegetation maps, the swamp existed within the Maumee, Ottawa, Portage, and Sandusky watersheds, and in the River Raisin's southern headwaters. Its boundary was determined by ancient sandy beach ridges formed on proglacial lake shores, after glacial retreat thousands of years ago. It extended from Fort Wayne, Indiana to the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge along the Lake Erie shore.
The vast swamp was a mosaic of deciduous forests, wetlands, and prairies shaped by terrain and drainage. Lower elevations hosted swamps, with species such as ash, elm, cottonwood and sycamore. Marshes, fens, wet meadows, and wet prairies were also present, especially along the Lake Erie shoreline east of Toledo. Slightly higher elevations hosted mesic species such as beech, maples, basswood, and tuliptree. Dry ridges (moraines) hosted xeric species, like oak and hickory.
Current wetlands such as the Okefenokee Swamp, the Great Dismal Swamp, the Atchafalaya Swamp, and the Everglades suggest the importance of the biodiversity within the ecosystems of the former Great Black Swamp region. Species once common within and around the swamp are now listed by Ohio as threatened, endangered, or extinct.
The Great Black Swamp's history exemplifies how Indigenous peoples were forcibly removed and ecosystems destroyed for development. In recent years, attention has grown to the history of the swamp and other destroyed environments, including California's Tulare Lake, contributing to important policies on wetland conservation (American and international), natural resource management, wildlife conservation, and global efforts to prevent forced Indigenous removal, pollution, environmental disasters, ecosystem collapse, and extinction.
The Laurentide ice sheet covered northeast Indiana, northwest Ohio, and southeast Michigan during the Last Glacial Period, reaching estimated heights of 300 to 500 meters (984 to 1,640 feet) near the Great Lakes and up to two miles elsewhere. Following its gradual retreat about 24,000 years ago, it left behind Lake Maumee. The Maumee Torrent drained the lake catastrophically 14,000 to 17,000 years Before Present (BP). The ice sheet and mega-flood dramatically shaped the regional landscape, effects now visible in Lidar-based DEM imagery.
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