Hours: 8 a.m.-Sunset (?), Daily
Sandy Ridge Reservation is a 526-acre wetland and wildlife preserve located in North Ridgeville. Since opening in 1999, the park has become one of the most popular sites for birding in Lorain County.
HIGHLIGHTS
The Johnson Wetland Center and playground
Ponds, Playgrounds and the Johnson Wetland Center
The Perry F. Johnson Wetland Center offers a meeting room as well as a relaxing screened-in porch overlooking a garden. The nearby playground is a kid favorite and a small picnic shelter is the perfect place to enjoy lunch. The center also offers a view of aquatic wildlife through the surrounding ponds which are a part of the building’s eco-friendly geothermal heating/cooling system.
Visitors can enjoy a tram ride during the summer weekends, provided by Friends of the Metro Parks volunteers.
The Johnson Wetland Center meeting room is available to rent for $125 for a four-hour time block. Time blocks available are 8 a.m.-Noon, 12:30-4:30 p.m., and 5-9 p.m. The room holds up to 50 guests and rentals include tables and chairs. For reservations call, (440) 327-3626.
Natural Habitat
Sandy Ridge Reservation’s wetland and marsh area
The Wet Woods Trail leads through a wetland forest where visitors may spot wildlife including white-tailed deer, fox, squirrel, and the elusive great horned owl. This normally quiet stretch of woods provides a front row seat for spring amphibian songs and the warbler migration. After less than a half-mile the Wet Woods Trail connects with the Marsh Loop Trail.
The Marsh Loop Trail is a 1.2-mile trail that circles the wetlands of Sandy Ridge, a dike-enclosed restoration area. The expansive marsh habitat, along with open water and scrub/shrub wetlands is home to a number of waterfowl, wading birds, and shore birds.
Bicycles, pets, and fishing are not permitted on the Wet Woods and Marsh Loop Trail. Bicycles and pets are permitted (on a handheld leash) across the park on the Meadow Loop Trail. This trail offers a short one-mile walk around the wet meadow which is a great place to watch the monarch migration.
NATURAL HISTORY
A frosty morning in the Sandy Ridge wetlands
Our Valuable Wetlands
Sandy Ridge’s most notable feature are its wetlands. Wetlands are valuable not only because they provide a habitat for wildlife, but they also help filter water pollution and act as flood control by taking excess water from overflowing rivers.
The park is home to muskrats, beaver, raccoon, coyote, and mink. The marsh area is a favorite of bird watchers with well over 100 bird varieties to view. Residents include sand hill cranes, egrets, American bittern, as well as bald eagles. Most recently the park featured a pair of trumpeter swans nesting in the marsh.
HISTORY
From Wetland to Farm to Wetland Again
Sandy Ridge opened to the public in 1999. While the area was originally a wetland (hydric soils and vegetation types are evidence of this) it had been drained and used as farmland for many years. Then, after sitting fallow for several years the area reverted back to a wetland and was purchased by Lorain County Metro Parks in 1990.
After construction on the wetland area was completed, wildlife began to repopulate the marsh. New arrivals are still appearing each year. Since 1995, nearly 250 species of birds have been identified in the reservation
Hours
8 a.m.-Sunset, Daily
Contact
*For shelter and room rentals, please contact the administrative offices at (440) 458-5121*