[Caitlin]

JoyceFoundationGrantWillHelpRestoreLakeErie by Improving Maumee River and its Tributaries

The Nature Conservancy to Work with Local Farmers, Families, Public Officials on Projects to Curb Sediment and Pollution, while Improving Source Water from Wetlands and Important Tributaries

.................The 130-mile Maumee River drains more than 8,000 square miles of farmland and city streets from portions of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, and dumps the contaminated and sediment-laden residue into Lake Erie. But as the largest river system in the Great Lakes, the Maumee, its tributaries and surrounding land also provide habitat for a wide variety of plant and animal species, including several rare aquatic species found in the tributary streams. These include three federally-endangered freshwater mussels: the clubshell, northern riffleshell and white cat’s paw pearly mussel (which survives nowhere else on Earth).
Approximately 1.7 million people live in and rely on the Maumee watershed, and rapid suburbanization is threatening to overwhelm this already-taxed ecosystem by converting remaining natural areas into streets and rooftops

More at: http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/ohio/press/press2835.html