Ohio EPA awards $5,000 grant for Lake Erie Island Water Trials Guide

Ohio’s Put-in-Bay Township Park District recently won an Environmental Education Mini Grant of nearly $5,000 from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) for its Lake Erie Island Water Trails Project.

The project will result in a guide offering information on paddling routes for Lake Erie, developed with research from The National Park Service and in cooperation with partners like the Ohio Clean Marinas Program, the Ohio Chapter of the American Canoe Association, the Ohio Sea Grant and the Put-in-Bay Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau.

The Lake Erie Islands Water Trails Guide will show public access sites leading to the routes and offer information on safety, natural history and cultural history. It will also inform those using the trails on how to do so safely while protecting natural resources and encourage environmental stewardship and courtesy for nearby private landowners.

The grant funding will also allow the park district to install signs throughout the trails on cultural and natural history, the area habitat, invasive species and harmful algal blooms, amongst other points of interest.

The Lake Erie Island Water Trails Project was one of 10 projects to receive a mini grant from the Ohio EPA this year, with a total of nearly $40,000 going toward environmental education.