Local, state, and regional guests toured Van Fleet Ditch in Lucas County, Ohio, the site of the county’s latest two-stage ditch restoration project. Speakers included representatives from the U.S. EPA, Ohio EPA, and U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur.
Completed in September, the project constructed a two-stage channel along a 1.2-mile stretch of Van Fleet Ditch in Monclova Township. Often called a “ditch-within-a-ditch,” two-stage projects widen the existing ditch to create a low-flow channel with increased capacity and establish a second channel, or bench, with natural vegetation that is flooded during higher flows. The vegetated bench filters and reduces nutrient runoff by preventing sediment and other algae-feeding nutrients like phosphorous from entering the waterway, which flows into the Maumee River and then into Lake Erie. The project was funded in part by the GLRI.
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