$1 Million Grant Will Help Conserve Wetlands in NW Ohio

Ducks Unlimited
Wednesday, 24 April 2002

Today DU announced that a $1 million grant from the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) will support a new wetlands initiative in Ohio. The Northwest Ohio Wetlands Initiative will be implemented in seven Ohio counties: Williams, Fulton, Lucas, Wood, Ottawa, Sandusky, and Erie.

The grant will expand efforts to protect and restore threatened and degraded wetlands and associated uplands in northwest Ohio. This is the first landscape-scale conservation effort in this region. NAWCA is a federal grant program designed to conserve the continent's wetland resources. Every dollar invested in conservation through NAWCA must be matched by funds from state, local or private sources. DU and its partners, the Ohio Division of Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, Black Swamp Conservancy, Pheasants Forever, Citizens for Buckeye Basin Park, and Winous Point Marsh Conservancy have worked together to match the NAWCA grant with more than $5 million to ensure the conservation of this critical habitat.

The Northwest Ohio Wetlands Initiative will fund the acquisition, restoration and enhancement of 4,000 acres of wetland and associated upland habitat. Ohio has lost more than 90 percent of its historic wetlands, yet northwest Ohio contains some of the largest and most historically significant wetlands in the lower 48 states. Located at the crossroads of the Mississippi and Atlantic Flyways, this region is an important migration, wintering and breeding area for waterfowl and other neotropical migratory birds.

Biodiversity is a key consideration in the delivery of this initiative, which includes the ecologically rich Oak Openings region. The dunes, tallgrass prairie, and oak savanna habitat characteristic of this region, provides habitat for 180 state-listed threatened and endangered species as well as nesting habitat for 65 species of birds in a rapidly developing area near the city of Toledo.

For more information, or to contact Ducks Unlimited, see their website at: www.ducks.org