Although Indiana has designated Cedar Creek an Outstanding State Resource Water (OSRW), it is impaired by pollutants and clouded by sediments (visible in the sometimes muddy/turbidity of Cedar Creek, pictured above) caused primarily by human activities such as:

These nonpoint source sediments and pollutants wash into roadside storm drains or ditches and then into Cedar Creek and its bottomlands.

Cedar Creek’s relative health is due to its many entrenched natural meanders, river oxbows, and numerous points of groundwater recharge. Flowing freely across the valley floor, the creek changes course in response to natural obstacles such as fallen trees and branches, creating riffles, glides, and shoals that aerate and clean its waters. 

People benefit from healthy floodplains/bottomlands/wetlands. While rivers and streams can threaten the structures that humans build, the best way to keep communities safe from floods is to give rivers and streams room to spread out—to flood naturally. (Natural flood control is the primary function of Fort Wayne’s Headwaters Park.) Protecting, nurturing, and restoring floodplains such as Cedar Creek’s allows them to serve as gigantic sponges that soak up huge amounts of rainwater, then release it gradually. This absorption helps prevent flooding downstream--and downtown.

Floodplains/bottomlands/wetlands are essential to the health of the creek and its inhabitants. Regular floods inundating Cedar Creek’s bottomlands recharge groundwater, help maintain water quality by filtering human pollutants, and create the wetlands and floodplain forests that nurture native plants and wildlife. Diverse wildlife includes mammals such as beaver, mink, muskrat, otter; waterfowl such as wood ducks and herons (photo); birds such as barred owls, pileated woodpeckers, and belted kingfishers (photo); and aquatic species such as frogs, salamanders, and freshwater mussels that filter the water.

Cedar Creek’s ephemeral wetlands--overflowing in times of high water and drying up in summer/fall-- provide critical links to other wetlands and to some wildlife populations. Some frogs and salamanders that spend most of their lives in upland areas come to ephemeral wetlands only to breed and lay eggs. Why? Because in these usually small, isolated areas, their eggs will not be eaten by fish. These wetlands are also home to chorus frogs and tree frogs (spring peepers) whose songs are a welcome first sign of spring.

Native plants anchoring the creek’s bottomlands and banks include Indiana’s magnificent, iconic sycamore trees. While preventing soil erosion into the creek, the sycamores provide homes for animals, and birds such as the great blue herons that nest in their high branches. 

The Cedar Creek valley’s remarkable species’ diversity is dependent upon undisturbed terrain, old-growth undisturbed forest, and floodplain and wetland aquatic habitats. In Cedar Creek and its prolific bottomlands, everything natural works together for good. 

The loss of habitat and habitat fragmentation has had large negative effects on biodiversity. Remaining available habitat along the St. Joseph River and its tributaries consists of isolated woodlots, isolated wetlands, public and private natural areas, riparian areas, aquatic habitat, and fallow land. 

Agricultural crops, which require the removal of all native vegetation, are the dominant land use in the watershed. Residential development, such as the rapid development of northern Allen County and southern DeKalb County, often results in the the loss of native vegetation.

The removal of vegetation from the banks of the river and its tributaries contributes to bank erosion, and the associated sediments make the water more turbid. Increased turbidity and lack of shade allow more energy from the sun to be absorbed by the water and increase its temperature. The primary effects of thermal pollution are direct thermal shock and changes in dissolved oxygen levels, both of which are harmful to aquatic organisms."