Ohio’s H2Ohio wetland grants expand in Lorain County as state program marks 200 projects

Rachel Denauer, assistant program manager for the H2Ohio statewide wetland grant program at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, told a Lorain County gathering that the program has funded more than 200 wetland and related restoration projects since 2019 and is now supporting work inside the county.

“Wetlands also have been identified as one of the top 10 practices to reduce nutrients,” Denauer said, describing the program’s focus on wetland, stream and floodplain restoration to reduce phosphorus and nitrogen that feed harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie.

Denauer said the program has moved quickly since its launch under Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019 and has supported nearly 19,000 acres of restored habitat statewide, with more than 100 projects completed. She said the General Assembly has provided roughly $30 million to the program, currently split about 60–40 so that the northwest Ohio basin receives a larger share of funding.

Denauer described H2Ohio as a cross-agency effort that coordinates work by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), the Ohio Department of Agriculture, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Lake Erie Commission. At ODNR, she said, the grant…