This summer, the public got a first look at the Ohio River Basin Restoration and Protection Plan. While the final draft is still under development, the initial 93-page report laid out nine broad challenges facing the entire, 204,000-square-mile basin. The issues range from toxic pollution to invasive species to extreme flooding.

The plan – coauthored by the Ohio River Basin Alliance, National Wildlife Federation and University of Louisville’s Envirome Institute – proposes a regionwide roadmap to solve these problems. But their report says it will require “long-term, sustained funding and action” led by the U.S. government, which they say has the unique power and resources to coordinate a large-scale ecosystem restoration effort like this.

On a hot September afternoon, I toured the Garvin

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