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Silverdome Potentially SOLD!
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Colloquium at University of Akron
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By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 01:14 p.m. EDT, Aug 03, 2009
WASHINGTON TWP.: The Beech Creek Botanical Garden and Nature Preserve might be one of the best-kept secrets in Northeast Ohio.
The 164-acre center near Alliance is part flower and vegetable gardens, part nature center, part educational facility.
Still developing, Beech Creek added a butterfly house last year and earlier this year opened a new greenhouse-plant science center.
The complex opened on a shoestring budget in 2003 with the goal of becoming a premiere horticultural and educational facility and promoting environmental awareness, said Paul Carmichael, executive director of Beech Creek and leader of the 10-year-old grass-roots group that has grown to 230 members.
''We want people to be connected to the natural world around them,'' he said.
Beech Creek offers gardening symposiums, Tomato Faires and winter programs to feed chickadees by hand. It has taken plant science to more than 8,000 students in local schools.
The butterfly house, filled with up to 300 colorful free-flying butterflies, is the center's biggest attraction.
It is open from early July until mid-September.
It got an estimated 8,000 visitors for its 10-week season in 2008, double what Beech Creek officials had expected, said spokesman Jim Nero.
Attendance is up this year as word spreads, he said.
The butterfly facility houses only Ohio native species and is the second facility of its kind in the state.
The butterflies include monarchs, American painted ladies, cabbage whites, clouded sulfurs, question marks, red spotted purples and Eastern tiger swallowtails.
You will also find caterpillars and butterfly pupa, the chrysalis or cocoon-like stage before butterflies emerge.
Youngsters can take a swab, dip it in a bowl of sugar water and hand-feed monarchs and 19 other species.
It is staffed by volunteers called — what else? — flight attendants.
All the plants were chosen especially to provide food and nesting sites for the butterflies and moths.
The greenhouse-style building — 30 feet by 48 feet — starts out the season in the spring with about 100 butterflies and caterpillars, and that number grows through the summer to a maximum of 300 or so, Nero said.
The butterflies are released in September so they can migrate south for the winter, he said.
The mission of the butterfly house is to inspire people to protect and create habitats for butterflies and related plants, he said.
The butterfly house was funded in part with a $31,515 from a NatureWorks grant through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Outside the butterfly house are carnation gardens reflecting Alliance's ties to U.S. President William McKinley and Dr. Levi Lamborn, who created the scarlet carnation.
There are also two sensory gardens — each 6 feet by 20 feet — where visitors are encouraged to sniff, touch and look at plants picked to stimulate the senses.
The newest building at Beech Creek is the greenhouse-plant science center that has been dubbed the Amazing Garden Plant Exploratorium. It will be open from February through mid-December; educational programming there will begin in the fall.
The new educational program is being funded with a $49,985 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and will serve third- through eighth-graders in Summit, Stark, Mahoning and Columbiana counties.
Beech Creek got grants from the Greater Alliance and Herbert Hoover foundations plus private donations for the Exploratorium, which measures 30 feet by 68 feet.
The new building will feature 19 interactive hands-on stations focusing on botanical science and the environment.
For now, the G-gauge railroad layout from the Northern Ohio Garden Railway Society and volunteer Rick Korenz of Uniontown is the building's big attraction.
Plans call for a historic log structure at Beech Creek to be converted into a visitor center, Nero said. It is not known when that will be completed because the Botanical Garden Association, the nonprofit group behind Beech Creek, relies heavily on volunteers for getting things done, he said.
Future plans include themed gardens, a children's garden, streamside gardens, garden wedding sites, indoor plant and flower exhibits, a community garden, an outdoor amphitheater and meeting rooms. Additional programs are planned.
There is one trail — Fern Ridge Trail, a 1-mile wooded walk. Two additional trails are planned.
Visitor hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday at 11929 Beech St. NE. Admission is free; donations are accepted.
For more information, call 330-829-7050 or go to http://www.bcbgarden.org.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
WASHINGTON TWP.: The Beech Creek Botanical Garden and Nature Preserve might be one of the best-kept secrets in Northeast Ohio.
The 164-acre center near Alliance is part flower and vegetable gardens, part nature center, part educational facility.
Still developing, Beech Creek added a butterfly house last year and earlier this year opened a new greenhouse-plant science center.
The complex opened on a shoestring budget in 2003 with the goal of becoming a premiere horticultural and educational facility and promoting environmental awareness, said Paul Carmichael, executive director of Beech Creek and leader of the 10-year-old grass-roots group that has grown to 230 members.
''We want people to be connected to the natural world around them,'' he said.
Beech Creek offers gardening symposiums, Tomato Faires and winter programs to feed chickadees by hand. It has taken plant science to more than 8,000 students in local schools.
The butterfly house, filled with up to 300 colorful free-flying butterflies, is the center's biggest attraction.
It is open from early July until mid-September.
It got an estimated 8,000 visitors for its 10-week season in 2008, double what Beech Creek officials had expected, said spokesman Jim Nero.
Attendance is up this year as word spreads, he said.
The butterfly facility houses only Ohio native species and is the second facility of its kind in the state.
The butterflies include monarchs, American painted ladies, cabbage whites, clouded sulfurs, question marks, red spotted purples and Eastern tiger swallowtails.
You will also find caterpillars and butterfly pupa, the chrysalis or cocoon-like stage before butterflies emerge.
Youngsters can take a swab, dip it in a bowl of sugar water and hand-feed monarchs and 19 other species.
It is staffed by volunteers called — what else? — flight attendants.
All the plants were chosen especially to provide food and nesting sites for the butterflies and moths.
The greenhouse-style building — 30 feet by 48 feet — starts out the season in the spring with about 100 butterflies and caterpillars, and that number grows through the summer to a maximum of 300 or so, Nero said.
The butterflies are released in September so they can migrate south for the winter, he said.
The mission of the butterfly house is to inspire people to protect and create habitats for butterflies and related plants, he said.
The butterfly house was funded in part with a $31,515 from a NatureWorks grant through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Outside the butterfly house are carnation gardens reflecting Alliance's ties to U.S. President William McKinley and Dr. Levi Lamborn, who created the scarlet carnation.
There are also two sensory gardens — each 6 feet by 20 feet — where visitors are encouraged to sniff, touch and look at plants picked to stimulate the senses.
The newest building at Beech Creek is the greenhouse-plant science center that has been dubbed the Amazing Garden Plant Exploratorium. It will be open from February through mid-December; educational programming there will begin in the fall.
The new educational program is being funded with a $49,985 grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and will serve third- through eighth-graders in Summit, Stark, Mahoning and Columbiana counties.
Beech Creek got grants from the Greater Alliance and Herbert Hoover foundations plus private donations for the Exploratorium, which measures 30 feet by 68 feet.
The new building will feature 19 interactive hands-on stations focusing on botanical science and the environment.
For now, the G-gauge railroad layout from the Northern Ohio Garden Railway Society and volunteer Rick Korenz of Uniontown is the building's big attraction.
Plans call for a historic log structure at Beech Creek to be converted into a visitor center, Nero said. It is not known when that will be completed because the Botanical Garden Association, the nonprofit group behind Beech Creek, relies heavily on volunteers for getting things done, he said.
Future plans include themed gardens, a children's garden, streamside gardens, garden wedding sites, indoor plant and flower exhibits, a community garden, an outdoor amphitheater and meeting rooms. Additional programs are planned.
There is one trail — Fern Ridge Trail, a 1-mile wooded walk. Two additional trails are planned.
Visitor hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday at 11929 Beech St. NE. Admission is free; donations are accepted.
For more information, call 330-829-7050 or go to http://www.bcbgarden.org.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
Canton, OH
Posted 05:26 PM, 08/03/2009
sweet
Akron, Oh
Posted 08:49 PM, 08/03/2009
Do they grow cannibus?
