Montpelier North Wildlife Habitat Site

About the Program
CRH Americas Materials, Inc. has been working to enhance its Montpelier North Wildlife Habitat Site in Ohio since 2008. A former mining operation, the reclaimed land has earned the ODNR - Minerals Education Award for Public Outreach and the Reclamation Achievement Award from the Ohio Aggregates & Industrial Minerals Association. The site consists of 10 acres of woodland habitat, 20 acres of wetlands and over 40 acres of grassland including a two-acre pollinator landscape.

Practices and Impacts

• The team maintains a warm season grassland includes native wildflower seed through rotational mowing to prevent the succession of the habitat into shrub land. Additional brush piles have been created for basking and nesting opportunities for pollinators.
• The team is removing invasive species like autumn olive and multiflora rose on site-wide in order to promote native vegetative growth.
• Recent monitoring of the forest habitat has shown a significant increase in diversity of plant and animal species from 2018 to 2023, notably understory plant diversity with species such as hazel alder and bird life such as American woodcock.
• Monthly monitoring of the lake and shoreline area indicates more than 16 native plant species and an increase in the number of bird species observed utilizing the habitat.
• A hibernacula was installed to provide suitable roosting for Ohio bat species including the endangered Indiana bat.