There is a secluded area in rural Hancock County where the Blanchard River winds in its long-worn path. Where nut trees and white pines stand in quiet watch as they have for hundreds of years. This is a place that shelters owls, woodpeckers, and other wildlife and where a wide range of amphibians have a comfortable home. The Blanchard River Nature Preserve is left to them. Humans are allowed in to share the shade on a hot day, or to quietly watch what nature is up to. But this is first and foremost a peaceful place for wildlife.
The 64 acres of the preserve includes more than a mile of the meandering Blanchard River. This natural flow is untouched by ditches or channels. It wanders the lowlands of its floodplain acres, swelling with the rain and snowmelt and sinking low during times of drought. Places to hold water are critical to the environmental health our region. A floodplain allows water to naturally sink into the earth, absorbing and making use of nutrients that would otherwise find their way to Lake Erie. In the Blanchard River Nature Preserve, the wetlands support a riot of early flowers that carpet areas of the preserve in the spring. The area surrounding the preserve is highly agricultural and the floodplain captures excess nutrients that can flow off fields and farms. Retained rainwater also recharges the seasonal vernal pools in the preserve creating ideal habitat for chorus frogs, leopard frogs, spring peepers and other amphibians.
There are no paved trails in the preserve but a few rustic paths provide some accessibility. When the river rises up, intrepid paddlers can access the Blanchard River Water Trail. The water trail is 37.6 miles long and the Blanchard River Nature Preserve is the most upstream access point at river mile 84.1. The water trail has many scenic rewards as it flows north and then west through forested riverbanks. The observant kayaker or wader at the Blanchard River Nature Preserve access point might see some rare mussels in the riverbed or notice the mudball chimneys on the stream banks that tell you crayfish are at work. The preserve is home to endangered mussels including the round pigtoe and purple lilliput and the northern crayfish, which is listed as a species of special concern. In the forested area, the property includes at least one slow-growing rock elm tree which can live for 300 years and grow to 100 feet.
There is a world of contrast in this preserve. Sharing the property with sponge-like wetlands full of water-loving plants, it also includes an unusual dry habitat called an alvar, found in the U.S. only in the Great Lakes region and rare even here. Alvars are places where bedrock is exposed for most or part of the year. Because there is little to no soil in an alvar, plants found here are like those found on prairie grasslands that can survive with little water.
The Conservancy purchased the land in 2013 and transferred ownership to the Hancock County Park District while retaining the conservation agreement. The land will never be developed. While some of the Conservancy’s preserved areas are also places for recreation and education, the Blanchard River Nature Preserve will remain a refuge, a place of quiet, of age-old rhythms of the seasons.