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Do IT this week: Layering
District not sure when tract will open to public
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Friday, Nov 20, 2009
A 504-acre wetland, once envisioned to be an international freight jetport and more recently a housing development, is Portage County's newest park.
The Portage Park District, the Western Reserve Land Conservancy and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District partnered to acquire the land east of state Route 44 and south of the Ohio Turnpike in Shalersville Township from the estate of late Hudson industrialist Burton Morgan.
The park district paid none of the nearly $2.4 million cost.
Morgan, 86, who died in 2003, had proposed a jetport in northern Portage County in the early 1990s.
Today that land is the Upper Cuyahoga Bog Preserve, the largest park in the Portage County park system.
Getting the tract with its high-quality wetlands is ''exciting,'' Christine Craycroft, executive director of the park district, said of the deal that closed last week.
''It's a beautiful property that will provide value and enjoyment for the public for generations to come,'' she said.
About half of the property is wetlands and there is a forested area, too. It has a great diversity of plants and animals, including some rare and threatened species. The preserve includes 8,000 linear feet of an unnamed stream that flows into the Cuyahoga River.
The preserve is not yet open to the public. Officials of the money-strapped park district are not sure when it will open, Craycroft said.
The park district is setting up a private foundation, the Portage Park District Foundation, and will seek donations to provide support for park operations and improvements, she said.
The park district, with 1,200 acres of parks and preserves and 15 miles of bike-hike trails, operates on less than $150,000 a year. The district cannot afford to open five other parks to the public, Craycroft said.
Portage County voters have rejected efforts to pass operating levies for the park district five times, most recently in 2008.
Acquiring the Shalersville property is a gamble, and park officials are ''stepping out on a limb because the park's finances are stretched to the limit . . . but it is the right thing to do to preserve habitat and conservation,'' Craycroft said.
The sewer district, based in Cuyahoga Heights, received a loan with a low interest rate through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for sewer work in Cuyahoga County. Part of the money saved by the district with that loan — nearly $1.8 million — will be funneled to the Portage land purchase.
The conservancy, a nonprofit land conservation group based in Chesterland in Geauga County, helped the park district with the paperwork to seek the state funds.
In addition, the project got $384,500 in Clean Ohio Fund money for green-space conservation. The conservancy covered the balance of $216,000, although there is hope that private foundations might still contribute to the purchase.
The conservancy holds a conservation easement on the 504 acres as an additional protection against its future development.
Craycroft said the district is looking forward to developing management plans and seeking community support — donations and volunteer work — to open the area as a park.
Volunteers will be needed to battle invasive species and build trails, she said.
Part of the land has been farmed, but that must end because of restrictions imposed by the two state grants, she said.
The state grants were approved for protecting water quality and wildlife habitat.
Those restrictions also limit how extensively the tract can be developed in the future. That's why activities at the new park will be limited to passive recreation: hiking, bird watching and educational programs, Craycroft said.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
A 504-acre wetland, once envisioned to be an international freight jetport and more recently a housing development, is Portage County's newest park.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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akron, oh
Posted 05:34 AM, 11/20/2009
Well this makes over 600 acres the people have lost this week to big government.WE pay up front to buy the land we pay to take care of it and we pay in the end with no where to live and less taxes to pay for police fire schools streets and on and on WAKE UP PEOPLE before China owns us The people lose again Welome to America
Posted 07:51 AM, 11/20/2009
Nice, there can never be too many parks. Much better than an airport.
Akron, OH
Posted 07:56 AM, 11/20/2009
China already owns thanks to our massive spending and insistence to buy only the cheapest. Parkland and wetland provide shelter to important birds and animals and plant species. Parks are part of the solution, not the problem.
Posted 08:51 AM, 11/20/2009
I bet wethepeople owns a honda
Posted 08:53 AM, 11/20/2009
I agree with westhill keep on buying china 4 billion in debt to china someday they are going to want there money
akron, oh
Posted 09:37 AM, 11/20/2009
I buy american two chevy's when you bow to the china leader you will see and I'm glad you people have money to pay all these taxes I do not. One in seven people are about to lose their house to forclouser when half your pay check if you get one goes to feed the needy you will sing another tune. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN
Akron, OH
Posted 10:37 AM, 11/20/2009
Not this again.. Someone please put a pillow over wethepeoples face.
Akron, OH
Posted 10:40 AM, 11/20/2009
Can you sound more idiotic than by posting numerous comments complaining about the government saving wildlife and protecting very important areas from deforestation. How can anyone oppose protecting natures resources? Life is not a waiting room and God will not swoop down to clean up our mess. People want this land to be protected. How can you not see that?
akron, oh
Posted 10:43 AM, 11/20/2009
Haters haters LOL LOL Tell the truth and you want to put a pillow on my face May God Bless you and show you the light Love Brother not hate
Akron, OH
Posted 10:49 AM, 11/20/2009
I mean can't you see that you are the only person who complains about these things. The rest of the world is very happy the government is taking interest in protecting these valuable and amazing areas full of resources and wildlife, plants and tress that all do so much in our daily lives.
akron, oh
Posted 11:09 AM, 11/20/2009
Oh I am not the only one who does not want to pay more tax I am the one speaking up about it.Protecting the wildlife that is why the metro parks are killing the dear you want to save the parks you pay for it but do not make me pay I have my own land with trees wildlife and plants I do not want to pay for yours
Akron, OH
Posted 11:25 AM, 11/20/2009
You are just obnoxious.
Posted 11:32 AM, 11/20/2009
wethepeople has a web site they are metting in st charles ill Iknow all about it my son ia a delagate from oh so you tell me about it. the land was not bought by goverment money as I read it will be own by the people
akron, oh
Posted 11:42 AM, 11/20/2009
Well god bless you Brother LOVE NOT HATE
akron, oh
Posted 11:43 AM, 11/20/2009
LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
Posted 12:37 PM, 11/20/2009
wethepeople -
Explain to me how you or I would gain from that land being industrialized or from a new residential development going in?
Posted 12:38 PM, 11/20/2009
Excellent purchase! Imagine if the government would not have bought land for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park years ago. This park has become a star for NE Ohio. The trails are full of bikers and hikers. The train is full of tourists. The money and jobs this park has brought to this area is phenomenal. The small investment in this new park will pay for itself in the future through tourism and a quality of life that attracts people to this area. Bravo, Portage Parks!
akron, oh
Posted 12:55 PM, 11/20/2009
We should not gain from that land unless we buy it it.The land should be sold to a private person as it has been for 250yrs.They would be allowed to farm it live on it and would not be allowed to sell for development zoneing laws would see to that and if you do not want to farm it Do not buy it
Akron, Oh
Posted 01:15 PM, 11/20/2009
I was hoping for public housing--I always wanted to move out to the counrty with all the folks.
Akron, OH
Posted 02:30 PM, 11/20/2009
wethepeople, do you think we should sell off Yellowstone and the Everglades too? Yosemite national park and the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge too? Should we let farmers buy the land only to soon after start logging the property and robbing the land of it's natural resources? Let all the plants and animals die or push them out into residential areas. That doesn't sound so great to me. This land, it's fauna, flora, and resources need to be protected.
akron, oh
Posted 03:49 PM, 11/20/2009
We can not sell yellowstone china already owns it.
Akron, OH
Posted 04:43 PM, 11/20/2009
Wethepeople, go to the nearest school and take a grammar course. It's quite apparent that you did not do very well when you were in school the first time around.
We are all to blame for our massive federal debt and trade deficit. We want cheap! We keep electing the same government officials that continue to run up the federal deficit.
akron, oh
Posted 04:57 PM, 11/20/2009
You speak your way I speak my way, Did I judge you No so Buzz off milkman
