WM
Geneva Landfill
Geneva, Ohio, United States
Certified through 2024
Project Name
Project Type
Geneva 2001 South-Central Constructed Wetland
Wetlands & Water Bodies
About the Program
WM has managed a vegetated wetland project at its Geneva Landfill in Ashtabula County, Ohio, since 2001. This project was designed to replace impacted wetland habitat formed at the toe of an older, unlined landfill cell being scheduled for clean-up and remediation. This south-central wetland was originally constructed to be a shallow emergent wetland complex with a shrub/tree fringe and deeper-water zones supporting submerged and floating-leaf aquatic plant species. Larger emergent wetlands such as these are not common in the glaciated till plains near Lake Erie, whereas forested flat-wood wetlands are plentiful. This wetland was created primarily to provide a measure of habitat diversity and to attract migratory and endemic bird species known to nest in the region. The area is dominated by spikerush, cattails, bur-reed, pickerel and spatterdock. The wetland serves as important habitat for amphibians and a well-studied muskrat population.
Practices and Impacts
WM has managed a vegetated wetland project at its Geneva Landfill in Ashtabula County, Ohio, since 2001. This project was designed to replace impacted wetland habitat formed at the toe of an older, unlined landfill cell being scheduled for clean-up and remediation. This south-central wetland was originally constructed to be a shallow emergent wetland complex with a shrub/tree fringe and deeper-water zones supporting submerged and floating-leaf aquatic plant species. Larger emergent wetlands such as these are not common in the glaciated till plains near Lake Erie, whereas forested flat-wood wetlands are plentiful. This wetland was created primarily to provide a measure of habitat diversity and to attract migratory and endemic bird species known to nest in the region. The area is dominated by spikerush, cattails, bur-reed, pickerel and spatterdock. The wetland serves as important habitat for amphibians and a well-studied muskrat population.
Practices and Impacts
- The team expanded the original project with the addition of 12.2 acres of in-place wetlands constructed in 2014 and 2015. These “new” constructed wetlands have been monitored in accordance with permit requirements since 2015; however, a number of voluntary habitat enhancements have also been made.
- The team plans to increase the density of woody shrub and tree species during monitoring to ensure eventual transition of the entire wetland to Palustrine Forested and Palustrine Scrub-Shrub wetland habitat types.
