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Cahoon Creek - Frontal Lake Erie Watershed Program

The Cahoon Creek - Frontal Lake Erie (CC-FLE) HUC-12 (04110001 02 04) spans seven communities in Cuyahoga County (Bay Village, Westlake, North Olmsted, Rocky River, Fairview Park, Lakewood, and Cleveland) and two communities in Lorain County (Avon and Avon Lake). The watershed is split by the Rocky River into two lobes; of which the eastern lobe (Lakewood and Cleveland) does not contain above ground streams due to development. The shoreline of the western lobe contains seven streams that enter directly into Lake Erie from the cities of Bay Village and Rocky River. A Nonpoint Source Implementation Strategy Plan (NPS-IS) has been developed for this HUC-12 to indicate critical areas within the watershed and restoration projects that can help improve water quality and habitat for aquatic, avian, and terristrial species alike.

If you live in the Cahoon Creek - Frontal Lake Erie Watershed you can take our pledge to become a Watershed Champion! It's easy! Simply pledge to take at least three watershed friendly actions in your yard and at least one action in your community to earn your very own Champion yard sign. The pledge is available online or you can use the PDF version to print and mail a copy to Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District, Attn: Elizabeth Hiser 216-524-6580 ext 1002.

The 1st Annual Meeting for CC-FLE was a success! With 30 watershed volunteers in attendance, we managed to remove 162 pounds of trash from our waterways! Way to go, volunteers!

The pilot season of our floating wetlands project came to a happy ending in October 2019 when we pulled the mat and plants from its temporary home at a retention basin in Westlake and transplanted them to their permanent home at a stream restoration site in North Royalton. While the mat was floating in Westlake it was removing excess nutrients that flowed into the system via stormwater runoff from our streets and yards, while also giving fish and macroinvertebrates habitat and shade. Now that they are planted at a stream and wetland restoration site they will grow and thrive in pocket wetlands adjacent to the stream and continue to remove excess nutrients from stormwater runoff before that runoff reaches the stream which is part of the Rocky River Watershed. This project has been such a fruitful learning experience and we hope to seek funding or research collaborations to further grow floating wetlands into a large-scale green infrastructure initiative throughout Cuyahoga County.

Along with help from the Bay Village Green Team, we were awarded a grant from the Western Reserve Land Conservancy in partnership with Dominion Energy to purchase a water quality monitoring kit to develop a volunteer program similar to those already established in the Euclid Creek and Rocky River watersheds. Water quality monitoring training is available to anyone who would like to volunteer to monitor the CC-FLE watershed. Contact Meg Hennessey 216-524-6580 ext 1004.

Check back frequently to view upcoming events and other ways that you can become involved and active in your community and watershed.

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