![[logo] US EPA](http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
Detroit River-Western Lake Erie Basin Indicator Project
INDICATOR: Location of the Erie Marsh Preserve
Location of the Erie Marsh
The Erie Marsh Preserve, located in North Maumee Bay on the western shore of Lake Erie (Figure 2), is a 2,217 acre preserve owned by The Nature Conservancy and managed in partnership with the Erie Shooting and Fishing Club. The preserve is now part of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge by virtue of a cooperative management agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Conservancy. Since first establishing the preserve in the 1870s, the Club has managed the marsh to maximize production of waterfowl. The Club generously donated the preserve to the Conservancy in 1978 and continues to lease the hunting rights and actively manage a central diked area of about 900 acres.
Erie Marsh is a globally important stopover site for migrating waterfowl, land birds, and shorebirds, is home to the state-threatened Eastern fox snake (Elaphe vulpina gloydi), and is a breeding area for bald eagles. Invasive species compromise or eliminate the value of coastal marshes as bird stopover sites and as habitat for common and rare animals. In the last two decades, the marsh has undergone severe invasion by common reed.
Invasion of the Erie Marsh Preserve by Common Reed, full text