WARREN - Five projects to preserve natural land in Trumbull and Mahoning counties are getting help from the state's Clean Ohio Conservation Fund.
And the metropolitan planning organization for the two counties, responsible for handling the money, has some left over from an earlier round of grant funding for these type projects, so now it's trying to give the rest away.
Eastgate has $933,00 in Clean Ohio Conservation Fund dollars available for local projects, and Rachel McCartney, program manager of community development, expects enough applications to spend what remains.
The fund is focused on protecting land in its natural state or stream restoration projects.
The agency should get final approval from the state on the projects already in the hopper in January. Those projects are:
12.5 acre expansion of the township park in Austintown. The township is providing a 35 percent match to the $75,600 project.
52-acre preservation of the Little Beaver Creek in Green Township in Mahoning County by Mill Creek Metro Park and Western Reserve Land Conservancy. The agencies are putting up a match toward the $201,300 project.
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has two projects, the protection of the Bristol wetland and the Spokane swamp, also in Bristol. The museum is providing a 25 percent match on the $54,149 wetland project and 32 percent against the $118,175 swamp project.
52-acre project in Mesopotamia and Bloomfield townships by the Western Reserve Land Conservancy. The agency is providing a 32 percent match toward the $68,800 Grand River Wetland Protection project.
Because only five projects were funded in an earlier round, there is money left to be used, McCartney said. Pre-applications for this money are due by Feb. 1.
Already, the Clean Ohio Conservation Fund has protected more than 3,200 acres of open space in Trumbull and Mahoning counties.