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Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission
682 Prospect Street
Berea, Ohio 44017-2799
(440) 234-2081
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OUR MISSION:

To be the industry leader in providing safe and efficient transportation services to our customers, communities and partners.
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Native Pollinator Gardens

In 2016, The Ohio Turnpike cultivated a partnership with Keep Ohio Beautiful and The Davey Tree Expert Co. to install critically needed Native Pollinator Plant Gardens at several Ohio Turnpike Service Plaza locations.  

The first gardens were installed in 2016 at Middle Ridge and Vermilion Valley Service Plazas, featuring 17 different Ohio-native plant species.

The following year in 2017, additional gardens were installed at the Mahoning Valley and Glacier Hills Service Plazas. 

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Pollinators are critical to maintaining our ecosystems and putting food on our tables.  Yet honeybees, monarchs and native pollinators are in decline.  Habitat loss has been identified as a significant

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 factor in this decline.  Fortunately, transportation rights-of-way can provide habitat corridors for pollinators to reproduce, forage and migrate. 

With a nearly 90 percent population decline in just 20 years, and as an iconic, charismatic species, the monarch butterfly has become a flagship species for pollinator conservation.


Upcoming Native Plant Gardens

In 2020, the Ohio Turnpike partnered with the Friends of Freedom Society and the Ohio History Connection to install two sets (four signs) of Underground Railroad Historical Markers in Sandusky and Portage Counties. These locations were selected as the paths to freedom crossed these present-day Ohio Turnpike locations. Other trails even traveled along portions of the Ohio Turnpike where it exists today.

- Commodore Perry & Erie Islands Service Plazas located at MP 100.0 (Sandusky Co)

- Brady's Leap & Portage Service Plazas located at MP 197.0 (Portage Co)
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These plaza locations will be the sites for our upcoming Native Pollinator Plant Gardens. In coordination with the relocation of our historical markers to more accessible and permanent locations, the Ohio Turnpike will install these critical pollinator gardens. 

The Ohio Turnpike will again partner with Keep Ohio Beautiful and The Davey Tree Expert Co. on the beautification project providing yet another vital location in Ohio for Monarch butterflies aiding in their annual migration. With a nearly 90 percent population decline in just 20 years, and as an iconic, charismatic species, the monarch butterfly has become a flagship species for pollinator conservation.