Ohio Lake Erie Buffer Initiative- Final Report
  Introduction

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

Lake Erie and its ecosystem is adversely affected by high sediment loading, loss of wetlands, loss of riparian habitat, and nutrient and pesticide runoff.

The 1998 State of the Lake Report (Ohio Lake Erie Commission, 1998) identified sediment as “the primary impediment to improving water quality in the Lake Erie Watershed.” The report contains a goal of reducing long term suspended sediment loads entering the lake by 67%, with the objective of “returning Lake Erie’s river mouths to a healthy and productive condition.” Without this drastic reduction in sediment loading, the larger objective of restoring healthy plant and animal communities to Lake Erie and its watershed will not be met.

Ohio has lost 84% of its wetlands since the original settlement of the state. It has been estimated that there were originally 300,000 acres of wetlands within the Lake Erie marsh area. By 1987 this figure was reduced to 22,793 acres (Ohio Lake Erie Commission, 1998). The North American Waterfowl Management Plan identifies the Lake Erie watershed as a critical waterfowl habitat.

The Lake Erie Watershed is highly agricultural with 72% of the land in active cultivation. Extensive clearing, drainage, and stream modification has significantly reduced the level of riparian corridors and wildlife habitat. As a result, the agricultural watersheds in the western portion of the watershed also have low levels of plant diversity. In the Ninth Biennial Report, the International Joint Commission recommended that governments increase buffer strip mileage in the Great Lakes Basin by 30% by the year 2002 (Kirchner, 1999).

The 1998 Lake Erie Quality Index rated the Watershed Sources Metric as “poor”. In addition to sediment, other non-point pollutants include nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrates, and pesticide runoff. The Lakewide Area Management Plan (LaMP) Beneficial Use Subcommittee draft report concluded that the near shore tributaries, coastal wetlands, and first habitat, are impaired lake wide due to eutrophication (LaMP, draft summary, 1998). Nitrate alerts are a regular spring occurrence in communities that draw drinking water from the Lake Erie tributaries. Sampling of the tributaries by the Heidelberg College Water Quality Laboratory reveals spring spikes in herbicide concentrations that can exceed drinking water standards.

The high sediment loads require frequent dredging of shipping channels to maintain access to Lake Erie ports. Dredging of Toledo Harbor represents the most severe dredging problems on the Great Lakes and costs more than $2,200,000 annually (Toledo Harbor Project Final Report, NRCS, 1998.) Disposal of the dredged material from Toledo Harbor creates significant environmental concerns. 

The Lake Erie Buffer Team began as a grass roots effort. As a result of above problems, in 1998 NRCS representatives from Northwest Ohio sat down with the Ohio Lake Erie Office to discuss the recently conceived National Conservation Buffer Initiative and the goal of possibility initiating a parallel effort within the Maumee Watershed. The initial idea was to develop a project for the Maumee Watershed. During the course of these discussions it became clear that the need for conservation buffers was watershed wide and it was decided to expand the idea to include the entire Ohio Lake Erie Watershed, and to invite others to participate in the effort.

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BUFFER TEAM ORGANIZATION

The first buffer team organizational meeting was held in the winter of 1999. A small group met, brainstormed ideas, and developed a list of other potential partners and participating agencies. Field level representatives from these other agencies were then invited to subsequent meetings. Enthusiasm developed and ideas were generated and refined in these initial meetings. The team and effort gradually grew in size and scope, functioning mainly as a self-directed work team. Members decided to develop a mission statement, goals, and strategic plan. Once these were developed the obvious step was to look for funding sources to implement the plan. The dreams of team members were realized when in January of 2000 the team successfully applied for and was awarded a Lake Erie Protection Fund Implementation grant.

Over the course of the project, team members held meetings at least quarterly and often times more frequently. Meetings were rotated throughout various locations in the Lake Erie Basin. The meetings were chaired by Steve Davis, buffer coordinator for Ohio NRCS, and the discussion focused on accomplishments since the last meeting and future activities. Minutes were taken and decisions were achieved thru consensus. Actions and major expenditures were decided and recorded via use of motions, seconds and voice votes. Duties and action items were delegated to team members based on their areas of expertise and availability. Sub-committees were often organized to tackle specific issues and projects in detail and these committees brought recommendations back to the team for decisions and/or actions. The teamwork that developed is reflected in the accomplishments of the group over the years.

                            Original Buffer Team Members with Governor Taft
                At Buffer Program Kick-Off Held in Seneca County- Summer 1999

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MISSION STATEMENT AND GOALS

The Ohio Lake Erie Buffer Initiative developed the following mission statement and goals as one of its first tasks.

MISSION STATEMENT:
The Ohio Lake Erie Buffer Team is a diverse group of public and private agricultural and natural resource organizations educating and encouraging farm operators and landowners to implement conservation buffer technologies that protect Ohio’s soil and water resources.

OHIO LAKE ERIE BUFFER TEAM GOAL:
The goal of the Ohio Lake Erie Buffer Team is to enroll 50,000 acres of new conservation buffers into available conservation reserve programs by the end of 2005.

It is often asked how the goal was established. In these early days this was a new practice, there was no track record on its acceptability, and no enhanced financial incentives for landowners to implement. Thus the goal was established not from a highly scientific exercise and need determination, but rather a figure was selected that was high enough to cause the team to stretch, but low enough that it was thought attainable with existing efforts. In retrospect, knowing the kinds of financial incentives that developed, it is now apparent that this goal should be substantially higher over time and over the entire watershed.

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LOGO DEVELOPMENT

After a mission statement and goals were developed it was determined that the effort needed a logo to give it identity. The team brainstormed ideas for a logo and a graphic artist with the ODNR Division of Wildlife translated the teams many ideas into a clear concise symbol which depicted green vegetation where the land meet the water and the lake. The logo became the symbol to identify the group, its efforts, its goals and its marketing products.

Ohio Lake Erie Buffer Initiative FINAL REPORT- March 2004

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