Rutherford+Wetland

Also see Wayne National Forest, Wayne National Forest-Athens Important Bird Area, and Hocking County Birding Drive
 * =Birding in Ohio=

Hocking County
=Wayne National Forest= =Rutherford Wetland and Anderson Nature Trail= Logan, Ohio 43138 Anderson Nature Trail brochure Anderson Nature Trail webpage

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Wayne National Forest--Rutherford Wetland and Anderson Nature Trail
Coordinates: 39.5085439, -82.2618484 eBird links: Hotspot map View details Recent visits My eBird links: Location life list Submit data

About Rutherford Wetland and Anderson Nature Trail
Rutherford Wetland, located in the Monday Creek floodplain, has an interesting history. The land is part of Ward Township, organized in 1836. The bottom lands along Monday Creek were cleared for farming. As the Mineral Railroad expanded, and the railroad line built to haul timber and coal from New Straitsville, the hydrology of the floodplain began changing. The railroad bed caused water to back up onto the farm fields—not just during the spring floods, but throughout the year. Farmers could no longer use the fields to grow crops, and after a period of time, the fields were allowed to grow back into brush and trees. The Forest Service acquired this bottomland area in the early 1990s. Today, a shrub-scrub wetland can be found alongside a second growth floodplain forest. Beaver soon moved into the area and dammed the culvert that once drained part of the field. Water further backed up into the area creating a diverse wetland.

The Anderson Nature Trail is a fully accessible .5 mile hiking trail and the newest trail on Athens District of the Wayne National Forest. The surfaced trail is built on an abandoned railroad bed. The first portion of the trail lies between the wetland and the Monday Creek bottom land. Further down the trail, visitors will walk through a pine plantation, a hardwood forest, and along a pond. From Anderson Nature Trail brochure



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|| L2680189 US US-OH US-OH-073 39.5085439 -82.2618484 Wayne National Forest--Rutherford Wetland and Anderson Nature Trail