Millions from U.S. set for Great Lakes UT, TMACOG will receive grants
May 5, 2016
By Tom Henry, Toledo Blade
May 5, 2016
May 5, 2016
OAK HARBOR, Ohio — With its latest round of Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grants, the federal government is putting another $12.5 million into fighting invasive species and reducing algae.
Seven of the 28 grants announced Wednesday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are for projects in northern Ohio, totaling $3.3 million.
Locally, the University of Toledo received $499,991 for invasive species research the U.S. EPA believes will have applicability beyond Lake Erie and be useful for all of the Great Lakes, much as a $340,000 award to the Ann Arbor-based Great Lakes Commission and three other projects funded throughout the eight-state region that aim to help reduce the influx of exotic plants, fish, and animals.
Another local recipient, the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments, is getting $497,258 to help farmers in Wood and Ottawa counties better control algae-forming runoff from their fields. That project is targeted at keeping more of most common fertilizers, phosphorus and nitrogen, on land in the Portage and Toussaint watersheds.
Northern Ohio’s announcements were made Wednesday in the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge’s visitor center as thousands of birders from across the world are converging on that part of the western Lake Erie for one of North America’s biggest eco-tourism festivals, the Biggest Week in American Birding, which begins Friday and is operated from the nearby Maumee Bay Lodge and Conference Center.
The presenter, U.S. EPA special adviser Cam Davis, noted the dozens of jobs and millions of dollars in economic impact birding brings to northwest Ohio while commenting about Lake Erie’s importance as a source of drinking water and recreation for millions.
“At the end of the day, a healthy Lake Erie is what we all want,” Mr. Davis said. “That old division between the environment and economic growth is breaking down.”
Mr. Davis was joined at the wildlife refuge by U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo), Ann Longsworth Orr, northwest Ohio regional representative for U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio), and grant recipients.
The Obama Administration began setting up the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative shortly after President Obama took office in 2009, with aspirations of making good on Mr. Obama’s pledge during his 2008 campaign for the presidency to bring $5 billion in new money to the historically underfunded Great Lakes region before he left office.
It will fall far short of that goal. The program was funded at $500 million its first year and has been funded at $300 million or less since.
The U.S. House of Representatives last week, though, authorized the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to continue at least another five years. It will go to the Senate next.
Miss Kaptur, who co-chairs Congress’ Great Lakes Caucus, called the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative “critical to state and local efforts to protect Lake Erie’s freshwater future.”
UT’s $499,991 award will be used to analyze purchases of live species from bait shops, outfitters, pond suppliers, and pet stores. The university also will use DNA tracking to learn more about release pathways, Carol Stepien, UT Lake Erie Research Center director, said.
TMACOG’s $497,258 award is expected to help reduce dissolved total phosphorus discharges to Lake Erie by 10,889 pounds over a three-year period, Kurt Erichsen, TMACOG vice president of environmental planning, said.
It is part of a $1.3 million investment in the Portage and Toussaint watersheds that will include $842,535 of in-kind services and money contributed by other sources, he said.
It is estimated that 150 landowners, representing a total of 18,750 acres of farmland, will participate. Mike Libben, Ottawa Soil and Water Conservation District program manager, said farmers can apply for grants immediately.
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