In 2007 The Chicago-based Joyce Foundation awarded $5 million in grants to a total of four national and local organizations in a quest to aid the recovery of the Maumee watershed. Environmental Defense will work to expand and target agricultural conservation incentives available to farmers. The Nature Conservancy will enlist Indiana farmers to test an improved design for drainage ditches that, in initial tests, dramatically reduced sediment and improved water quality entering local streams; further downstream, TNC will seek to reduce runoff from expanding suburban developments by restoring wetlands in the ecologically rich Oak Openings area and in creating a ?green ribbon? along the lower Maumee River. Partners for Clean Streams Inc. will test strategies for reversing ecological damage from a dam structure on Swan Creek in Toledo, complete risk assessments for Duck Creek and Otter Creek, and create inventory and restoration plans for the Swan Creek and the Ottawa River. American Rivers will work with local government and residents in Toledo to capture and filter storm water in gardens, rain barrels, wetlands, and other forms of ?green infrastructure? and keep it out of the sewer system, thus reducing floods and sewage overflows into the river and Lake Erie.

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