By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
After a one-two punch from ice jams in 2015 and 2019, Buttonwood Park’s soccer fields, campground, parking lot and many trees were obliterated. Since then, the Wood County Park District, which owns the property at 27174 Hull Prairie Road, Perrysburg, has accepted that the park’s location means it will always be vulnerable to the powers of the nearby Maumee River.
In partnership with the Black Swamp Conservancy, the park district is working to restore the park to its natural state using a $400,000 grant from H2Ohio.
In 2019, Gov. Mike DeWine established H2Ohio as a statewide water quality initiative to address Ohio’s most pressing water resource issues.
On Tuesday, the Wood County Park District Board of Commissioners authorized Executive Director Christopher Smalley to take the next step toward completing the restoration project at Buttonwood Park/Betty C. Black Recreation Area. The resolution allows him to grant a temporary easement to the Black Swamp Conservancy to complete the restoration.
The project will restore approximately nine acres of former recreational land to functioning wetlands and floodplain habitat. According to the conservancy’s website, the restoration project will help improve water quality, provide wildlife habitat and create natural flood storage along the Maumee River.
Adopt-a-Garden program update
The Wood County Park District has 41 active volunteers involved in the Adopt-a-Garden program at seven parks in the district, Madeline Nelson with the park’s stewardship department reported during the board meeting.
“The Adopt-a-Garden volunteers volunteered a total of 1,329 hours in the 2025 season,” she said.
Participants are part of a team that designs, implements and oversees the gardens at Black Swamp Preserve, Bradner Preserve, Cedar Creeks Preserve (where the meeting was held), the Swallowtail Butterfly Garden at J.C. Reuthinger Memorial Preserve, Otsego Park, William Henry Harrison Park and W.W. Knight Nature Preserve. Each spring, Nelson meets with the teams to schedule cleanups and discuss plans for the season. The district provides the plants.
“The program helps volunteers gain gardening experience, but they are also an educational resource,” Nelson said. “They’re teaching communities about native plants and their importance in the environment.”
”It’s a great way to get involved with native plants regardless of your prior experience,” she said.
In other business, the board:
- Authorized Smalley to renew the park district’s membership in the Ohio Plan Risk Management, administered by Highland Administrative Services Inc., for liability, vehicle and property insurance coverage for $67,517.
- Approved the purchase of six taser units for the park district police officers from Axon Enterprise Inc. for $30,808.80 to be paid in six installments over a five-and-a-half-year period.
- Allocated up to $4,000 of additional funds to cover the increased cost for traffic control signage for intersections along the entire Slippery Elm Trail.
- Accepted the updated Information Technology-Cybersecurity policy to be observed by all park district employees.
- Received the preliminary statutory budget for the park district and was asked to review it, ask questions, and provide comments before it goes through the process of being shared with the Wood County Budget Commission and County Commissioners before final approval in December.
