The village of Ottawa Hills is contributing a portion of its municipally owned property to be converted to wetland.
Dedication of a small new wetland doesn’t come cheap. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and H2Ohio have awarded The Nature Conservancy a $437,000 grant to restore a 23-acre floodplain habitat into a forested wetland.
That particular parcel collects a lot of the water coming off yards, streets, and driveways, and along with it chemicals, soil, salts, heavy metals, motor oil, and other contaminants. That water makes its way into the Ottawa River and then Lake Erie: 33 million gallons a year.
The parcel on Brookside Road is mostly treeless, with mowed turfgrass, and various other shrubs and grasses — not very good for filtering runoff.
In all, the village owns about 150 acres of undeveloped land along the Ottawa River, but it is mostly wooded and thus not in need of remediation.
The Nature Conservancy’s plan is to literally engineer the wetland to make use of native plants that, with their deep roots, are much better at filtering and storing water.
“This location provides an ideal opportunity to make significant impact to water quality by capturing that water on the landscape and letting it filter through wetland vegetation before going into the Ottawa River,” said Ashlee Decker, project lead for The Nature Conservancy. She said in all there have been 14,521 acres of wetland restored in the Western Lake Erie Basin.
There will be a detailed plan for engineering of the site, with meetings for the public before the final design is implemented. Look for planting to happen in the spring of 2024.
It’s been a good place to sled or walk a dog, or even picnic.
Going forward this land is going to perform a service of great value.
Ottawa Hills’ 23 acres contributes to a healthier lake.
First Published April 14, 2023, 4:00 a.m.
