By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

ANDERSON TOWNSHIP - As Hamilton County leaders push for a $1 billion regional transportation plan that includes a bridge across the Little Miami River, a river preservation group will plant more than 100 trees today along the riverbanks.

About 25 volunteers from Little Miami Inc. and some University of Cincinnati students will install the 6- to 8-feet-tall sycamore and ash trees at Horseshoe Bend Nature Preserve.

The trees are a low-cost way to restore the river, said Eric Partee, executive director of Little Miami Inc.

The group has acquired and now owns more than 30 natural areas along the 105-mile Little Miami River, including the 50-acre Horseshoe Bend Nature Preserve.

The plantings are part of a continuing restoration program the group is conducting to restore trees for wildlife habitat, including sites for the 254 bird species that have been identified along the river corridor.

"We hope to make people aware of the extraordinary natural beauty that would be destroyed by the proposed highway bridge," Partee said. "This is the only national and state Scenic River in the (area). It should be saved."

The Eastern Corridor transportation project calls for a bridge over the river as part of a 10-mile, four- to six-lane highway proposed to link Interstate 71 to I-275.

The Eastern Corridor project overall calls for expanded bus, rail and highway transportation along the eastern portion of Hamilton County into Clermont County.

The plan aims to improve traffic flow, which would improve environmental and other conditions in the process, said Rick Record, one of many consultants working on the project for the Hamilton County Transportation Improvement District.

One of the areas where the bridge may cross the river is at Horseshoe Bend Nature Preserve.

Little Miami Inc. opposes the bridge, contending it would pollute the area and harm the river and its species.

Environmental studies are under way on the plan and should be wrapping up soon, Record said. More detailed studies will begin this summer on the physical and biological conditions of the river to determine the best location for the bridge.

"We are looking to minimize the adverse consequences," he said. "No major project, whether it's transportation or anything else, is ever built without some physical impact.

"However, there's no reason that a major project can't work hard and do more to improve general conditions in the area. I am pretty optimistic about finding a good, reasonable solution for everybody."

The soonest that parts of the new highway would be built would be 2008, but residents could see improved bus lines and biking and walking trails before that, he said.

There also is an option for a light-rail line using diesel-propelled trains between downtown Cincinnati and Milford on existing tracks.

A first stage would run downtown to Newtown.

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com