Posted on April 1, 2026
By Molly Walsh
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has received a $750,000 grant to continue restoration work at Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve, one of Northeast Ohio’s largest remaining coastal wetlands.
The funding, awarded through the Ohio Lake Erie Commission’s Lake Erie Community Grant program, will support a three-year effort to improve water flow, remove invasive plant species and restore native habitat across the marsh.
Museum officials said the project builds on more than a decade of conservation work at the 801-acre preserve. Since 2015, restoration crews have removed more than 1 billion stalks of invasive phragmites and planted more than 324,000 native plants. The marsh now supports 180 native plant species, 259 bird species and 26 state-listed rare species.
