Save the Mosquito Creek Wetlands Corridor and Protect Your Water!

Help save our valuable Mosquito Creek wetlands! The Mosquito Creek corridor, a tributary to the Mahoning River, is being threatened by development. Please sign this petition to the Ohio EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny the developer's application to fill, cover, and destroy the wetlands.

Please oppose one of the largest wetland "fills" in Ohio EPA history at the proposed Enterprise Park, located on 106 acres of forested wetlands in the Mahoning Valley in NE Ohio. The Mosquito Creek Watershed is a part of the larger Mahoning River Watershed which is still recovering from a legacy of unrestrained industrial impacts. Join concerned citizens of the Mahoning Valley and support this petition that opposes the destruction of wetlands.
• Protect from flooding: These wetlands help protect homes and lands downstream from flooding. Filling this wetland will increase flooding risks downstream.
• Safeguard Water Quality: Wetlands naturally improve water quality by filtering nutrients, pollutants, and sediment, and will decrease potential for harmful algal blooms downstream.
• Impact Climate Change: Forests are the only effective natural terrestrial means to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; removal of existing forests will exacerbate climate warming.
• Preserve Biodiversity: This urban wetland, one of the finest in Ohio, is an oasis for biodiversity. The Mosquito Creek Wetlands Corridor is well known as a corridor for bird migration, and habitat for unique amphibians and plants. Fragmenting these wetlands will result in the loss of biodiversity in the larger complex.
• Location Alternatives: There are many alternative locations for this proposed development. Our Mahoning Valley would benefit from reinvestment in areas that have been otherwise abandoned.

Ohio has already lost 90 percent of its wetlands. Wetlands are the most diverse ecosystems in Ohio, they are effective in water purification, water storage, biodiversity, flood control and other ecosystem services. It is imperative that we save the wetlands that remain. 

Moreover, Governor DeWine's H2 Ohio Initiative includes this statement from the State of the State speech in March 2019, "We have so much to appreciate. And we need to support and expand efforts that are working to preserve and protect our state's natural wonders—from Lake Erie to all our lakes and rivers. But, at the same time, we still face some significant challenges."

This proposed development will destroy forested wetlands, create 38 acres of impervious surface including over 2000 parking spaces, disrupt maturing wetland forests and adversely impact the water entering Mosquito Creek.

We advocate for protecting the Mosquito Creek Wetlands, consistent with the Governor's initiative which proposes a statewide grant program for riparian wetland creation. The Director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has also publicly stated that one of her goals is to restore wetlands in Ohio. Therefore, we urge the Ohio EPA and US Army Corps to deny the 401 and 404 permits associated with Enterprise Park.

Photo credit:  http://edocpub.epa.ohio.gov/publicportal/edochome.aspx