PERRYSBURG, Ohio — If you've noticed the turf at Riverside Park looking a bit brown lately, it's not because of a drought. It is the first step in a new eco-friendly initiative by the city of Perrysburg to give the riverfront a natural facelift.

The project replaced the traditional turf grass with thousands of native grass plugs along the steep banks of the Maumee River.

"We are planting about 8,000 plugs," said Lauren Rush, the natural resources manager for the city of Perrysburg. "We're going to make them very dense to fill in all of this area with these native grasses to provide habitat, to stabilize this bank since it's a little steep heading down to the Maumee River and to improve habitat in the long run here at the park."

The initiative was part of the city's ongoing effort to imp

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