Ducks unlimited (DU), the lake erie cooperative weed management area (LE cwma), ohio department of natural resources division of wildlife (odow), and U.S. Fish and wildlife service (FWS) will use…

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) awarded a $200,000 Cooperative Agreement under the Coastal Program (CFDA 15.630) to Ducks Unlimited, Inc. and partners to counter the loss and degradation of 500 acres of Lake Erie coastal wetlands on public lands. The funding will be used over 2 years, from November 2024 to September 2026, to manage invasive plant species and restore native wetland habitats. The project involves partners including the Lake Erie Cooperative Weed Management Area, Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife, and FWS. Key activities include removing invasive plants like Phragmites, purple loosestrife, and reed canary grass, then leveraging existing wetland management infrastructure to maintain sustainable, native wetland conditions for wildlife, fish, and public recreation.

Ducks unlimited (DU), the lake erie cooperative weed management area (LE cwma), ohio department of natural resources division of wildlife (odow), and U.S. Fish and wildlife service (FWS) will use $200,000 of midwest coastal program funding to counteract the continuing loss and degradation of habitat in the western lake erie basin by managing invasive plant species to restore 500 acres of lake erie coastal wetlands on public land. Over the past decade, odow and FWS have updated the wetland management infrastructure of levees, pumps, water distribution channels and water control structures on most of their managed coastal wetlands along western lake erie and sandusky BAY. However, replacing and updating the wetland management infrastructure was just the first phase of restoring the wetland habitat. Most of these wetlands were in a degraded condition prior to addressing the management infrastructure and were dominated by invasive plant species (e.g. phragmites, purple loosestrife, flowering rush, frog bit, reed canary grass, and narrowleaf cattail). The final phase of restoring these coastal wetlands is to implement two years of invasive species management to remove these harmful plants and RE-set the system. Once the invasive plants have been addressed using midwest coastal program funding, odow and FWS can use the wetland management infrastructure to manage water levels and native wetland plants, resulting in sustainably productive wetland conditions for wildlife, fish and public recreation.