Maumee-area residents are being asked to weigh in on $2 million to $5 million of fish and wildlife habitat improvements planned for the Maumee River near the city’s Towpath Park.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hosting a public information session at 5:30 p.m. on July 30 about the work, called the Great Lakes Fisheries and Ecosystem Restoration Towpath Park project. The 90-minute meeting will be inside the Maumee High School Performing Arts Center, 1147 Saco St., Maumee.
Three potential locations are under consideration. They include sites adjacent to existing walking paths west or east of the Conant Street Bridge, or a portion of the river further downstream, northeast of the Audubon Islands State Nature Preserve.
A river-adjacent wetland complex, vernal pools, and softening streambank features to stabilize the bank and slow water velocity near the shoreline are being contemplated.
The project would also reduce the rate of storm water runoff reaching the Maumee River.
Josh Unghire, a Corps’ Buffalo District ecologist and acting chief of its planning branch, said improvements are needed because of multiple changes to the Maumee River over the past 100-plus years, including the way water in it flows, as the region became urbanized and northwest Ohio became more industrialized.
“We are looking to restore some of the things that have been damaged along this stretch of river,” Mr. Unghire said. “The river, especially close to the city, has been highly modified.”
He said, though, it is not in direct response to impervious concrete Maumee has laid down to pave much of the Towpath Trail within the city limits as part of its efforts to develop Towpath Park near the Maumee River shoreline.
The Corps would have wanted to do the wildlife habitat work whether the trail was paved or not, he said.
Although the project is intended to help multiple types of fish and wildlife, it is being designed primarily with the goal of providing more shelter for walleye spawning and nurseries, Mr. Unghire said.
“We know this part of the river is a really important walleye run. However, there are some studies that show it could be doing better,” he said. “We’re lacking wetlands. The habitat that exists in this part of the Maumee River is not as great as it could be.”
The work will be designed to complement similar restoration efforts now under way in the Maumee River near Walbridge Park and the Toledo Zoo.
There, in what has been described as the biggest wildlife restoration project in the river’s history, work began earlier this year on $13.5 million of improvements to a pair of river islands, Clark Island and Delaware/Horseshoe Island, each within view of one another near Walbridge Park.
“These are indeed intended to complement it,” Mr. Unghire said. “It is 100 percent intended to dovetail and build synergy.”
The work near Towpath Park could include as many as 52 acres, Mr. Unghire said.
Comments are being sought at the meeting to help guide a feasibility study that, once done, will move the project into its design phase, he said.
It’s unclear whether the work will be spread out among all three sites, focused on one, or some combination of two, Mr. Unghire said.
About 65 percent of the costs will be covered by the federal government. The other 35 percent will be covered by nonfederal sources, such as Gov. Mike DeWine’s H2Ohio program, he said.
The project is sponsored by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. Partners include the Maumee School District, the city of Maumee, and Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Jeff Tyson, Great Lakes Fishery Commission program manager, said various options are being considered downstream of significant walleye and white bass spawning areas.
Travis Hartman, Ohio DNR Lake Erie fisheries program administrator, said the state agency sees the project “as a great opportunity to do meaningful habitat restoration while also providing educational opportunities for the school system and the community.”
“Each of the proposed sites is near or directly adjacent to prime walleye spawning habitat,” Mr. Hartman said. “We hope to restore desirable shoreline habitat and potentially reconnect the river to the floodplain at the downstream site. These habitat improvements will provide habitat for larval fish and also provide opportunities for submerged vegetation to establish during the summer.”
The work is intended to help improve water quality, as well, and to “better connect the local community to the river,” Mr. Hartman said.
“We have been getting exceptional walleye hatches since 2014, and we see this project as an opportunity to improve habitat in an area that is critical for walleye production,” he added.
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