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Officials endorse funds to protect watersheds
CANFIELD
The Mahoning County commissioners have endorsed applications by the Mill Creek MetroParks for $566,250 in state Clean Ohio Conservation Program funds for land acquisition and preservation, primarily to protect the Mill Creek and Cranberry Run watersheds.
The park district is applying for $243,750 to acquire for preservation purposes an 83-acre parcel along Mill Creek adjacent to the Hitchcock Woods section of Mill Creek Park and to the Mill Creek Preserve in Boardman.
The 83 acres is between Western Reserve Road and U.S. Route 224.
The district is also applying for $300,000 to acquire two parcels totaling 16 acres and to restore them to their natural state at the Cranberry Run headwaters off Tanglewood Drive in Boardman.
The project will include a wetland and stream channel restoration and planting of native vegetation, similar to what was done at the Mill Creek Preserve off Western Reserve Road.
The park district already has a 25-acre park at the headwaters of Cranberry Run, which is a tributary of Mill Creek.
The park district is also applying for $22,500 to buy a 5.3-acre parcel off Leffingwell Road, adjacent to the MetroParks Farm in Canfield Township for farm expansion.
The commissioners’ endorsement, which is required for the application, occurred last week.
Friday will be the application deadline, said Justin Rogers, the park district’s landscape architect.
The district expects to learn within the next month whether its applications will be approved, Rogers said.