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 program prioritizes sites that intercept surface water, contain hydric soils and can treat a large watershed drainage — design features intended to maximize nutrient reductions per dollar.

The H2Ohio grant is structured as a reimbursement program with two-year project timelines, Denauer said, and can cover indirect costs such as staff time. She said the program does not require a cash match and that applicants include local conservation partners, park districts, soil and water conservation districts and other public and nonprofit entities. Denauer said the program also works with private-land programs: in addition to roughly 200 traditional public wetland projects, the program supports 243 private landowner projects, many in northwest Ohio.

Denauer said the program funds monitoring through the Lake Erie Aquatic Research Network (LEARN), which currently monitors a subset of sites to help answer design and management questions. “The monitoring program monitors about 40 right now of our 200 projects,” she said, explaining that researchers test focal sites to learn which designs and planting regimes best reduce nutrients.

She also reviewed a related H2Ohio Rivers program, which focuses on riparian preservation, dam removal and large-scale river cleanups. Denauer said Rivers has roughly $8.5 million for land protection, dam removals and cleanup grants and has funded litter- and tire-removal efforts; she said the Rivers initiative has removed large amounts of trash and thousands of scrap tires at multiple sites and is funding community river-cleanup grants for 2025.

Denauer highlighted several completed and in-progress projects across the state and discussed work in Lorain County. She said Martin’s Run in Lorain County was completed in 2022 after re-meandering a straightened channel and creating wetland pools to slow and filter water before it reaches Lake Erie. John Navar, identified at the meeting as the ODNR project lead on Martins Run, attended the ribbon-cutting, Denauer said.

Denauer and county officials also noted smaller local projects: Woodpecker Ditch in Lorain County has been completed, and the Gerber Property Stream and Wetland Restoration — a roughly 60-acre project — is funded and in progress. Lynn Ickes of Lorain County Stormwater described the Gerber project’s funding mix as totaling about $4.5 million: $1 million from H2Ohio, $1 million from National Wildlife, $1 million from private partners (the Beckett Corporation), and $1.5 million from the county stormwater district.

Attendees asked technical questions about microplastics, sedimentation and long-term maintenance. When one resident asked whether restored wetlands remove microplastics, Denauer said monitoring to date has focused on nutrients and fish habitat and that she was not aware of research specifically designed for microplastics at those sites. On maintenance and sediment accumulation, Denauer said some projects include settling pools that are periodically dredged and that long-term management plans are required of grant applicants.

On a question about a nearby landfill and permitted inputs, Denauer said ODNR’s wetland grant program does not have authority over landfill siting or Ohio EPA permitting but offered to discuss concerns with other agencies. She said communities remain eligible to apply for H2Ohio grants for restoration work regardless of other nearby land uses.

Denauer closed by directing interested applicants to the H2Ohio statewide wetland grant landing page for application materials and project documents and by offering to be a local contact for Lorain County projects.