Wetland Management
BRV features about 500 acres of wetlands, which includes a 10-acre lake, ponds, streams, calcareous fens and a lakeside fen, and marshes. The area’s many natural springs provide abundant water flow to these wetland areas, ensuring an influx of fresh nutrients and a healthy ecosystem.
Wetlands of BRV
Our primary environmental objective at Big Rock Valley (BRV) is to practice good stewardship — to promote and maintain the diverse native species with particular attention to listed species. Perhaps most important is to consider the consequences of our actions, knowing that anything we do (or don’t do) will have a negative effect on something else.
Big Rock Valley features about 550 acres of wetlands, which includes a 10-acre lake, ponds, streams, calcareous fens and a lakeside fen, and marshes. The area’s many natural springs provide abundant water flow to these wetland areas, ensuring an influx of fresh nutrients and a healthy ecosystem.
Why we should warm up to these cold-blooded critters
Dan Wyant, President at the Edward Lowe Foundation, tells us about the importance of snakes to our ecosystem and why we appreciate their value.
Eastern massasauga rattlesnake
Big Rock Valley’s wetlands are home to some 30 varieties of amphibian and reptile species, including the eastern massasauga rattlesnake, which won federal listing as a threatened species in fall 2016.
Surprising salamander species
Jim Ball, a private researcher and herpetologist, began studying salamanders at Big Rock Valley in 2003. Among his discoveries has been a hybrid salamander with genes from three different species that previously had been sighted only on an island in Lake Erie.
Fish population
The property’s ponds and lake contain numerous fish species, including bass, bluegills, crappie, perch, pike, gar, as well a variety of minnows and smaller fish. Unfortunately, carp — a nonnative, invasive species — migrated to Sharkey Lake from a downstream location. Management efforts have been implemented for population control to reduce the threat of major negative impact on native species.
What researchers are saying
“The property is a gem. It has a spectacular variety of wildlife and has been so well managed, I really look forward to coming back every year.”
— Billie Harrison
Supervisor of the Aquatic & Reptile Center at the Milwaukee County Zoo
“At Big Rock Valley there is a larger population of snakes so we get a better understanding of what kind of habitat they like. I’ve been able to learn more in a shorter of period of time there, which makes me more of an expert here in my home range state. In addition, the way the foundation manages its property offers a lot of lessons.”
— John Adamski
Assistant Curator, Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, New York
“Visiting the foundation’s property is an awesome experience because the habitat is so well-managed. Often massasaugas are in degraded parcels, so it’s refreshing to see the amount of animals at Big Rock Valley.”
— Andrew Lentini, Ph.D.
Senior Director, Wildlife & Science at Toronto Zoo
“Finding reptiles in the field is not always a guarantee, so going to a place like Big Rock Valley where they are prevalent is a bonus.”
— Tara Archer
Herpetologist, Columbus Zoo, Columbus Ohio