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Land Stewardship & Restoration
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Fire is an important tool in prairie
management. Photo by Don Geiger
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Ecological restoration
is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded,
damaged, or destroyed. Ecological
restoration can enhance or restore the services an ecosystem provides, such as
flood control, water purification, decomposition, regeneration of soil and many
others. Habitat creation and maintenance of biodiversity are also important
reasons to engage in restoration. This section describes some of the tools and
strategies we employ in the woodlands, prairie and wetlands of Mount St. John.
Restoration began at
Mount St. John in the early 1990s after the Ohio Department of Transportation
harvested 75,000 cubic meters of sand and gravel, deposited here by the
Wisconsinan glacier 17,000 years ago, to build Interstate 675. The resulting
“borrow pit” was 14 acres and 40 feet deep, descending all the way to the water
table. The construction not only removed all life from the land, it altered the
moisture regime, soil chemistry, and other factors which would indelibly mark
any new community that established there.
Through the efforts of MEEC
founder Bro. Don Geiger, the Society of Mary, past and present MEEC staff, and
the generous involvement of hundreds of volunteers, the “borrow pit” is now a
thriving Eastern tallgrass prairie and restoration efforts have been undertaken
in the woodlands, wetlands and old fields on the property. The property was
declared an Ohio Natural Landmark by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in
1988, recognizing it as “an outstanding environmental education area possessing
exceptional value in illustrating and interpreting the natural heritage of
Ohio.” This section explores our restoration efforts. | 
