LANCASTER – By this time next year a major wetland restoration project in Cooper Marsh should be getting underway.
TransCanada Pipelines met with the Cooper Marsh Conservators Wednesday to present a cheque for $7,000 towards the task of restoring the wetlands at the south end of the marsh.
The area has been overrun by cattails and other invasive plant species.
The plan is to bring in backhoes and a bulldozer in the winter of 2015-16, when the ground is frozen, and create three interconnected ponds.
The job should take 10-12 days.
Cooper Marsh Conservators fundraising chairman Robin Poole says the ponds will be 60 meters in diameter.
The channels will be 150 meters long, 10 meters wide and will be relatively deep at three meters in order to prevent the plants from growing again.
It’s hoped the new ponds and channels will help preserve fish, turtles and other wildlife.
Poole says the goal now is to fund raise for the balance of the project, which could be roughly $40,000.
The Cooper Marsh Conservators have met a similar challenge in the past.
It successfully raised roughly $268,000 to replace one kilometer of boardwalk in the marsh after receiving another $7,000 grant from TransCanada in 2012.
It’s expected the construction work will be done by West Front Construction Canada of Cornwall, which worked on the last project.
Cooper Marsh, just west of Lancaster on County Road 2, is managed by the Raisin Region Conservation Authority and the Conservators.
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