Metroparks Toledo has agreed to oversee future maintenance of Point Place’s Cullen Park once some $4.2 million of additional wetlands work is completed there in 2022.
The current agreement is to have Metroparks in charge of only the future wetlands acreage, not all of Cullen Park.
The restoration work is part of Gov. Mike DeWine’s H2Ohio program, which aims to improve western Lake Erie water quality through a combination of wetlands projects and by helping farmers pay for more efficient water-conservation practices in their fields.
Most of the wetlands and farm enhancements are being done in the western Lake Erie watershed, especially on land which drains into the Maumee River and Sandusky River watersheds. Those are the lake’s two biggest tributaries bringing algae-forming phosphorus into it.
Cullen Park had been used mostly as a boat ramp until it was redone with $1.5 million work back in the mid-2010s to make it into more of a functional park.
At that project’s 2015 dedication, Ohio Rep. Paula Hicks-Hudson (D., Toledo), Toledo’s mayor at the time, praised the once-dilapidated boat ramp and recreational area off Summit Street for getting “on par with the county Metropark system today.”
The work included a new parking lot, boat ramps, trails, and other features. That particular makeover was prompted by a corps of volunteers, including the Point Place Business Association and the nonprofit Visions of Cullen Park.
The design for the upcoming wetlands enhancement there is about 90 percent completed, Scudder Mackey, Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Coastal Management chief, told The Blade recently.
The park district’s willingness to help manage the future wetlands at Cullen Park was announced last Friday.
That project and a wetlands project at nearby Grassy Island are also expected to improve fish and wildlife habitat, and enhance recreational opportunities such as paddling and birding, according to Mr. Mackey and Joe Cappel, Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority vice president of business development.
Engineering plans for rebuilding Grassy Island someday are about 60 percent finished now and should be completed this summer. There has been about $700,000 invested in that site so far, Mr. Mackey said in an interview last month.
Construction money for Grassy Island and several other wetlands projects are dependent on future H2Ohio funding cycles or possibly a federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant, he said.
“Metroparks enthusiastically supports these projects and the goals of Governor DeWine’s H2Ohio initiative to address the serious issue of nutrient runoff affecting Lake Erie and its tributaries,” Dave Zenk, Metroparks Toledo executive director, said.
Mr. Cappel said the project is necessary because “water quality is an incredibly important issue in northwest Ohio, and one of the main priorities of the H2Ohio program is reducing the phosphorus in the river and lake that cause algal blooms.”
For more information, see cullenbaywetlands.com.
Not everyone is a fan of the projects, though.
A group called Stop the Swamp said on its website and on its Facebook page that it is having a rally at 7 p.m. Thursday for citizens to air their concerns.
The event will be in the Bingo Hall in Merchant’s Landing, 6176 N. Summit St., Toledo.
Stop the Swamp said it fears bigger wetlands will bring more mosquitoes, unwanted invasive plants, and potentially affect boating.
“They think we support these projects. Show up and prove them wrong,” the group states on its website.
One of the group’s members, Jim Byrne of North Toledo, said in a letter published by The Blade last month that the “ill-conceived plan to fill in parts of Maumee Bay with marsh, forming submerged islands, is an attempt to make it look like the state is doing something when it will have very little effect on phosphorus loads in the lake while creating more fields of invasive phragmites.”
Stop the Swamp now claims to have 471 members, at times drawing standing-room-only crowds to its meetings.
“About the only thing they have to do with water quality is H2Ohio funding,” Ann Foeller, one of its organizers said of the wetlands projects outlined by the Ohio DNR and the port authority. “In the end, they will put more nutrients into the lake than they will take out. They also will cause a great deal of irreversible damage to the Maumee Bay.”
The state DNR and the port authority have said the public will be pleased by the upcoming wetlands work.
First Published June 7, 2021, 9:08 p.m.