WASHINGTON D.C. (WTOL) - U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur on Tuesday announced that $300,000 in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency funds will go to Toledo Metroparks to help restore the Maumee River Area of Concern.
The funding is part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Both Brown and Kaptur have led the charge in the Senate and House respectively to ensure that Great Lakes restoration efforts are fully funded.
"These federal resources will continue our work to clean-up the Maumee River and Lake Erie," said Brown. "The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is critical in our fight to keep the Western Lake Erie Basin healthy and we must ensure this bipartisan program is funded by Congress."
"Our work to preserve and protect the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative against attacks by the Trump Administration has been critical to the continued progress of healing Lake Erie," said Kaptur, co-chair of the House Great Lakes Task Force. "Metroparks Toledo will be a good steward of these funds as part of their work to conserve public lands and waterways across the largest watershed in the Great Lakes region. Their expertise and dedication to move forward on restoring the Maumee are both welcome and needed."
The funds will be used to restore 32 acres of wet prairie within the Maumee River Area of Concern. According to U.S. EPA, Metroparks Toledo will acquire property in the Irwin Wet Prairie Priority Conservation Area in the Oak Openings Region and will provide habitat restoration, site cleanup and invasive species removal. The site will be under permanent care by Metroparks Toledo and managed to preserve the thousands of species that rely on this habitat.
