Chagrin River restoration draws state and local officials for Lake Erie project celebration

The Chagrin River bends through Daniels Park in Willoughby on its way to Lake Erie, and for the first time in more than a century it runs there without a dam holding it back. State and local officials marked the finished restoration by boat this month: a remnant dam removed, 685 linear feet of eroding bank stabilized, and the East Branch realigned to a more stable channel.

State Rep. Dan Troy, Congressman Dave Joyce, Willoughby Mayor Robert Fiala, and Eastlake City Councilmembers Jason Kasunick and Todd Gulley were among those on the tour hosted by the Chagrin River Partners and the Ohio Environmental Council.

The project, led by Chagrin River Watershed Partners with the City of Willoughby, removed the remnant low-head dam that once impounded water for Willoughby's municipal supply around 1920 and had continued to affect habitat recovery and stream flow after it breached in 2005.

What the work did

The bank work is meant to hold soil that was washing downstream — toward Eastlake, where the river meets the lake — and to slow the water as it moves through the corridor. Crews stabilized 685 linear feet of eroding riverbank with bioengineering methods, restored 1.5 acres of riparian forest, realigned about 700 linear feet of the East Branch, and turned about an acre of the old channel into an oxbow wetland — a shallow, planted basin that holds water and gives fish, waterfowl, and native plants a place to live.

The finished site anchors 78 acres of protected land along the corridor, wetlands included.

Who paid for it

The construction was funded by a $2.2 million H2Ohio grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, following a $15,000 Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant secured in 2017 for conceptual stream restoration plans. That is state money that bought a stabilized bank and a rebuilt channel here — the kind of work that determines what the river carries past Willoughby and Eastlake on its way to the lake.

Chagrin River Watershed Partners — a coalition of member cities, villages, townships, counties, and park districts including Mentor, Eastlake, Willoughby, Lake County, and Lake Metroparks — represents more than 91% of the watershed's land area through 35 to 36 member communities.

Emily Arthur, the Ohio Environmental Council's agriculture and water manager, said, "H2Ohio and Clean Ohio projects are rebuilding coastal habitat, improving water quality, and strengthening community resilience."

What comes next

Arthur said, "There is real momentum for continued investment in this work."

The state's H2Ohio funding picture tells a different story. In the enacted FY 2026–FY 2027 budget, H2Ohio totaled $164.9 million for the biennium — down from the roughly $270 million originally proposed. ODNR's H2Ohio allocation fell to $42.4 million, or $21.2 million per year, down from $69.4 million in the prior biennium. That leaves less state money on the table for the next stretch of riverbank.

House Speaker Matt Huffman said, "I don't think we're going to do that," in response to the idea of using bonds to fund the H2Ohio effort.

The celebration's optimism about continued investment runs against a state budget that cut H2Ohio funding and a House leader who has poured cold water on borrowing to pay for it, leaving open whether Daniels Park is a down payment or a one-time gesture.