Page Tools

 

When plans to build a power plant amid a 540-acre tract along the Lake Erie shoreline were abandoned five years ago, conservation groups set about purchasing the property. Named after Coho salmon, the site was the largest undeveloped and unprotected parcel of land left along the Pennsylvania shore of Lake Erie. Together, the Lake Erie Region Conservancy, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and The Conservation Fund were able to purchase the Coho site.

Coho features high bluffs, wetlands and old growth forests and six archeological sites, some of which date back more than 10,000 years. Unearthed fragments of stone tools and pottery lead some to believe that an ancient village once stood on the site.

The effort to protect and preserve Coho was undertaken with a loan of $2.4 million from the Great Lakes Revolving Loan Fund. The fund was established through $6.5 million in grants made between 2001 and 2003 from the Mott Foundation to The Conservation Fund to provide short-term financing for land conservation efforts at high-priority freshwater sites throughout the U.S. portion of the Great Lakes basin. To date, the fund has been used to preserve more than 6,900 acres valued at nearly $18 million.

Sam Passmore, Mott Foundation Environment program officer, is pleased to see the caliber of projects resulting from the establishment of the loan fund.

“This is exactly the kind of project we had in mind when we helped The Conservation Fund establish the Great Lakes Revolving Loan Fund,” Passmore said.

The Coho site will be turned over to Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) early next year for inclusion into its state park system.

Additional Resouces

• Click here to read more about the acquisition on the Web site of Great Lakes Radio Consortium, another Mott grantee. Also, access an audio clip featuring an interview with Tom Furhman and Cathy Pedler of the Lake Erie Region Conservancy.
• Click here to read about the Great Lakes Revolving Loan Fund.
• Click here to access a related story about Mott's support of an organization's efforts to permanently protect more than 6,000 scenic acres along the shore of Lake Michigan.