Posted on October 14, 2024
PORT CLINTON, Ohio — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District and City of Port Clinton celebrated the completion of construction on a five-year coastal restoration project with a final planting of native species on the beach.
The $1.9 million Great Lakes Fishery and Ecosystem Restoration Program Port Clinton Coastal Restoration Project has expanded costal wetland – a rarity along Ohio’s Lake Erie Shoreline – by 1.4 acres, removed invasive plant species, and created a more diverse habitat for wildlife to thrive in and people to enjoy.
“Preservation of wetlands along the shores of Lake Erie is vital to a healthy ecosystem,” said Lt. Col. Robert Burnham, USACE Buffalo District commander. “With our expertise as the nation’s environmental engineers and the tremendous support of our partners at the local, state, and federal level, we’ve re-designed a critical piece of the Great Lakes landscape, rid it of an invasive plant, and installed a diverse plant community that will have a lasting impact.”
“Ensuring this space is maintained and open to all in its natural state has been a priority for this community,” said City of Port Clinton Mayor Michael Snider. “Collectively, we all recognize and appreciate the role this wetland provides not only to the ecology in immediate area, but to the resources we rely on from Lake Erie. Keeping this waterway healthy means our local economy and way of life remains viable.”
“Wetlands are essential to the health of our Great Lakes. With 95 percent of our original coastal wetlands in the Western Basin lost, a whole-of-government approach is required to restore the wetlands we have left. Partnerships and collaboration between federal, state, and local government are key to tackling this daunting task,” said Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. “With this collaborative restoration project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the citizens of Port Clinton with their elected leadership, have established a best-in-class effort that will provide benefits not just to our local community but to our freshwater life source, Lake Erie, and our entire region of Northwest Ohio.”
“Projects like the one we are celebrating in Port Clinton are why the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is so important for Ohio. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is a bipartisan success story and that’s why we fought to secure additional investment for it in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” said U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. “The best ideas come from Ohio – not Washington. I will always fight for projects like this that create jobs that can’t be shipped overseas, improve our water infrastructure, and support all the Ohio communities whose economies depend on Lake Erie.”
“The collaborative approach undertaken by Port Clinton showcases the strength of local commitment in addressing the environmental challenges facing our Great Lakes. You should be very proud of this accomplishment, which will bring both local and regional ecological benefits,” U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance wrote in a proclamation presented to the City of Port Clinton.
Over the course of five years, the project set out to establish a functioning coastal wetland.
Within a footprint of 12.2-acre coastal wetland and beach complex, USACE and its contractor, Tidewater, Inc., took the space’s struggling 4.6 acres of wetland and grew it to six acres of diverse, revitalized habitat.
Construction included removal of the invasive plant species phragmites across the 12.2 acres; varying of the wetland terrain through microtopography, enabling diverse plant species to take hold; and installation of nearly 40,000 plugs of native plant species.
With construction complete, the project now begins a monitoring period to evaluate success based on diversity of vegetation and the overall quality of the expanded wetland. Early results have already shown a transition from the phragmites monoculture to a diverse plant community and the return of more native wildlife species to the habitat.
Close to half of all bird species in the United States use coastal wetlands in this part of Ohio for some portion of the year. The wetland in Port Clinton sits along two major bird migration flyways – the Atlantic and Mississippi. The space provides connectivity with the few other coastal wetlands along the Lake Erie shoreline, making each more accessible to migratory birds and other wildlife and enabling them to thrive.
For residents and visitors to Port Clinton from across the Great Lakes, the site offers an opportunity to enjoy the rare wetland and improves on the opportunity for birders in Ohio and nearby states.
The project’s design and execution drew on previous successes by the USACE Buffalo District in coastal restoration projects in Rochester and Buffalo, New York. Lessons learned from the Port Clinton project will be applied to the creation of new Great Lakes wetlands currently under construction by the district in Buffalo and Ashtabula, Ohio.
More than $1.9 million was invested in the site throughout construction (65% federal from USACE, 35% non-federal from the City of Port Clinton, with support from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency).
The project brought together additional partners from the Ohio EPA, Ohio Division of Natural Resources, Ohio Lake Erie Commission, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
The project was authorized under Section 506 of the Water Resources Development Act of 2000, the authority for the Great Lakes Fishery and Ecosystem Restoration program.
Photo and video of the project site and the completion event are available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/buffalousace/albums/72157715789263423
About the Great Lakes Fishery and Ecosystem Restoration Program (GLFER):
Section 506 of the Water Resources Development Act of 2000 authorized the Great Lakes Fishery and Ecosystem Restoration Program, which authorizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to cooperate with other federal, state, and local agencies to plan, implement, and evaluate projects supporting the restoration of the fishery, ecosystem, and beneficial uses of the Great Lakes.
Projects that restore fish and wildlife habitat, remove dams and other barriers to fish migration, prevent and control non-native invasive species, and contribute to the removal of beneficial use impairments in Areas of Concern are eligible for funding through the program.
More information on GLFER is available at: https://www.lrd.usace.army.mil/Mission/Programs/Article/3646104/great-lakes-fishery-and-ecosystem-restoration-program-glfer/
The Buffalo District delivers world class engineering solutions to the Great Lakes Region, the Army and the Nation in order to ensure national security, environmental sustainability, water resource management, and emergency assistance during peace and war.
The USACE Buffalo District has completed invasive plant species treatment aimed at preventing species that include purple loosestrife and phragmities, from spreading and preventing the nourisment and restoration of the coastal wetland habitat, Port Clinton, Ohio, Sept. 09, 2024. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is dedicated to the preservation of wetlands along the shores of Lake Erie which is vital to a healthy ecosystem.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District and the city of Port Clinton, Ohio celebrate the completion of construction on a five-year coastal restoration with a “final planting” of native species in the project’s revitalized wetland area. The Buffalo District delivers world class engineering solutions to the Great Lakes Region, the Army and the Nation in order to ensure national security, environmental sustainability, water resource management, and emergency assistance during peace and war.
