April 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 38

H O WA R D M A R S H M E T R O PA R K

modeled here at Howard Marsh and elsewhere in the Western Lake Erie Basin, "
says Gildo Tori, director of public policy
for Ducks Unlimited's Great Lakes/Atlantic Region. " The complexities of habitat conservation in areas that have been
greatly altered provide challenges that
demand creative thinking and innovative
action that often requires diverse partnerships. Then, there is the funding puzzle
to solve as well! Using private/public
partnerships to leverage and multiply
different funding pots makes these mega-habitat restoration projects doable. "
Mark Haynes Construction of Norwalk, Ohio, began construction in June
2016 and finished last fall after moving
approximately 700,000 cubic yards of
dirt - enough to fill the first 24 floors
of the Empire State Building. Nearly
30,000 tons of stone was hauled in, and
before the project is done, 12,000 trees
and shrubs will be planted. By opening
day, thanks to new pumps capable of
moving 1.2 million gallons per hour, the
property will be mostly flooded with lake
water from a channel. The main pump,
according to Schetter, could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in 33 minutes.
" It's been an amazing transformation, "

Photo courtesy of Art Weber, Metroparks Toledo

hunting, trapping and wildlife recreation
and conservation at the marsh. A $1.76
million grant from the Clean Ohio Fund
Greenspace Conservation Program and
$1.24 million from Metroparks paid for
the other half of the purchase price.
Converting Howard Farms into Howard Marsh required additional partnerships and funding. Metroparks
contracted with Ducks Unlimited, the
international wetlands conservation organization, to design the wetland habitat
infrastructure, and with SmithGroupJRR, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, to design the public amenities infrastructure.
Ducks Unlimited also obtained a $2.8
million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, to assist with construction.
The Division of Wildlife committed a
total of $4 million to help fund the wetland
restoration, with Metroparks providing a
25 percent match. The division's contribution was reimbursed with dollars from the
federal Pittman-Robertson Act, an excise
tax on hunting and fishing equipment that
was used to fund habitat restoration.
" Successful conservation requires multilevel private/public partnerships, as

Parks & Recreation

says Denis Franklin, a Metroparks natural resources department supervisor who
has overseen the project from the start.
" It's hard to imagine just 18 months ago
this was a farm field.
" Since construction started, " Franklin
continues, " the project has generated interest from local, state and federal agencies, as well as from neighbors, nature
lovers and local business groups. We've
given more than 70 tours since the project began. It's rare to see something like
this, especially on this scale. "
Among the site's visitors was a CNN
crew, which visited last summer to interview Ducks Unlimited's Tori for a story
about the potential loss of funding for the
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, an issue that has recently cropped up again.
Create More Room to Roam
Placing a park near the lakeshore has
been a priority for Metroparks Toledo for
several years. Providing additional parkland is a strategic initiative begun in 2002
when nearly two-thirds of Lucas County
electors voted in favor of a property tax
levy to acquire additional parkland for
the future. The " land levy " fueled the
greatest era of growth in the park district's history, leading to the opening of
the first new parks in four decades.
" Since that time, we have added 4,500
acres, from the globally significant Oak
Openings Region on the west side of the
county, to this property near our eastern
border, " explains Scott J. Savage, president of the Board of Park Commissioners, the governing body of Metroparks
Toledo. " Without this property, we could
not make good on another promise: to
have a Metropark within 5 miles of every
resident of Lucas County. With so little of
the original Lake Erie wetlands remaining, being able to restore 1,000 acres so

Denis Franklin (far left) and Tim Schetter (far
right) share plans with park commissioners
Scott Savage, Fritz Byers and Lera Doneghy.
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April 2018 - Parks & Recreation

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