The Ohio Department of Natural Resources and Gov. Mike Dewine announced Thursday that more $7 million in funding will go to twelve H2Ohio projects across the state. Nearly $1 million of those funds are going to two projects in Franklin County.
The projects receiving funding are a land acquisition to increase the protected area of Big Darby Creek and a wetland restoration project at Prairie Oaks Metro Park.
Conservation and reintroduction of wetlands is important for both conservation efforts and Franklin County citizens.
“By creating wetlands, we help filter the water as it's coming from development or agricultural runoff, it filters out any pollutants and allows the water to kind of slow down and settle. So we don't get as many of the large-scale flooding,” said Jill Snyder, visitor engagement mananger for Columbus Metro Parks.
The filtering out of pollutants, Snyder says, also helps with water treatment.
“It improves the water quality, which obviously helps with the various animals and wildlife that live in central Ohio,” Snyder said. “But that's also a source of our drinking water and is actually our watersheds. So it allows us to spend much less time and money treating the water.”
Projects like the one at Prairie Oaks Metro Park seek to restore wetlands from former agricultural areas. Snyder said one way they do this is by breaking up the drain tile put in by farmers.
“We also move a lot of dirt when it comes to wetland restoration,” Snyder explained. “I always feel like it seems a little weird, because you see bulldozers moving the land, but that allows us to kind of sculpt the land so that it's a more natural space.”