The Girdham Road Sand Dunes, an iconic landscape in Oak Openings Preserve Metropark and the larger Oak Openings Region, is ready for state nature preserve dedication by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). Working with ODNR, Metroparks Toledo is planning a dedication event and ribbon cutting next month.

State dedication offers permanent protection of exceptional habitat within Oak Openings Preserve. Located in Swanton, it is the largest of 19 Metroparks owned by Metroparks Toledo.

The dunes represent an important characteristic of the Oak Openings Region and the preserve of the same name—sand. The unique ecological region stretches across more than 1,300 square miles of land in Wayne and Monroe counties in Michigan and Lucas, Henry, Fulton and Wood counties in Ohio.

The region contains five plant communities that are rare in the world: black oak lupine barrens, Midwest sand barrens, mesic sand tallgrass prairie, twigrush wet prairie and Great Lakes pin oak/swamp white oak flatwoods. These rare communities harbor a wide variety of plants and animals.

Once dedicated, the Girdham Road Sand Dunes will become the third State Nature Preserve within a Metropark. Audubon Islands State Nature Preserve in the Maumee River between Maumee and Perrysburg is part of Side Cut Metropark, and Blue Creek Limestone Glade State Nature Preserve in Whitehouse is part of Blue Creek Metropark. A portion of Lou Campbell State Nature Preserve in Monclova Township known as the Weckerly Component is also a Metroparks property.