Chagrin River Watershed Partners awarded Lake Erie protection grant

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities has awarded a national grant to Chagrin River Watershed Partners Inc. to support a regional collaboration to protect Lake Erie, according to a CRWP media release.

The grant comes from the Healthy Watershed Consortium Grant Program.

The Central Lake Erie Basin Collaborative, West Creek Conservancy and Western Reserve Land Conservancy work in collaboration with the CRWP on the project.

The grant will go towards land protection and enhancements, land acquisitions, special and unique aquatic features and conservation easements, said CRWP project manager Kim Lawson.

Nationwide, 74 grant proposals were submitted with CRWP’s project being one of 16 to receive the funding, and one of four targeting watershed protection within the Great Lake region, according to the April 20 media release.

The $200,000 grant is matched by $200,000 of local in-kind contributions.

“This will allow us to work with communities in the watersheds to incorporate watershed protections into their codes and ordinances,” Lawson said. “We will also be working to incorporate watershed protections in regional plans.”

The grant along with the in-kind contributions will allow the partners to work with watershed organizations and land trusts to protect and steward healthy stream corridors that flow into Lake Erie from Sandusky Bay in Erie County to Conneaut Creek at the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.

This grant over the course of three years will leverage $11 million to be used for the protections of approximately 425 miles of streams and 30,000 acres of land in Ohio’s Central Lake Erie watershed.

“Chagrin River Watershed Partners is proud to receive this grant and looks forward to working with our partners to sustain Lake Erie for People and Wildlife,” CRWP director Heather Elmer said in a media release.

The project was supported by U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Russell Township, who said, “This is about where we swim, where we fish, and most importantly, where we get our drinking water.

Joyce noted that Lake Erie provides drinking water for over 11 million people and jobs for 119,000 Ohioans.

“Regardless if you live right on the lake or inland, the funding of the Healthy Watersheds Consortium will contribute to the vital protection of Lake Erie. That is a direct benefit to everyone’s quality of life in Northeast Ohio,” Joyce said in a media release.

To help ensure healthy stream corridors, the project will include planting trees along streams that aren’t highly vegetative establishing a healthy native woody vegetation, Lawson said.

For additional information on Chagrin Watershed Partners, visit www.crwp.org. For additional information on the Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant program visit www.usendowment.org.

SUBMITTED The Chagrin River feeds 271 miles of water directly into Lake Erie and is a common fishing locale in Northeast Ohio.