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By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 07:12 p.m. EDT, Sep 07, 2009
The Cuyahoga Valley National Park is kicking off a new program to fix, restore and expand trails.
The National Park Service and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park Association, a friends-of-the-park group, are starting Trails Forever.
The goal is to raise a $10 million endowment by 2016, and the interest income on that money would fund the park's trail work, said Paul Stoehr, acting superintendent for the 33,000-acre federal park between Akron and Cleveland.
The goal of the initiative is to ensure the Cuyahoga Valley will have a top-quality trail system in the future, safe from the fluctuations of federal budgets with strong local support.
The need for such a program is great because the trails in the Cuyahoga Valley are ''one of the premier assets we have,'' he said.
New funds would augment, not replace, what funds the Cuyahoga Valley park gets for trail work under the vagaries of the federal budget process, Stoehr said.
The park typically gets about $100,000 a year for trail work, he said.
The new program, the brainchild of retired former Superintendent John P. Debo Jr., is closely patterned after a program at Acadia National Park in Maine, Stoehr said.
That program got under way in July 1999 with a $13 million fundraising campaign. Friends of Acadia raised $9 million, and the park provided $4 million through park admission fees.
The money was raised by mid-2000. The park intends to rehabilitate 130 miles of foot trails, restore 11 miles of abandoned trails and create five connector paths to nearby communities within 10 years. Acadia was the first national park with a trail endowment.
Stoehr said similar programs have been started at Golden Gate National Recreation Area in California and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina.
He and Deb Yandala of the friends group said there are five elements to the new program:
• To solidify volunteer support for trails.
• To get the public more involved in trails.
• To assist on needed capital improvements along the trails.
• To improve trailside interpretation through new wayside exhibits, printed materials and electronic technologies.
• To fund the endowment, perhaps with big boosts from charitable foundations in Northeast Ohio.
A trail improvement planned on the Brandywine Gorge Trail in northern Summit County will be the first evidence of the new program.
A new bridge will be installed in October-November by volunteers to help hikers get across Brandywine Creek.
The three-section fiberglass pedestrian bridge will be 165 feet long and 4 feet wide. It will replace crossing stones that are risky at high water.
The bridge, costing about $190,000, will be paid for by the park service. A contractor is building the concrete piers to support the bridge. Volunteers and park staff will be used to install the structure.
The Cuyahoga Valley park will pay for the bridge with money from park rentals and from admission fees paid at other national parks, Stoehr said.
Assisting on the project is the Cuyahoga Valley Trails Council, a grass-roots group that has been a longtime park partner.
Some preparatory work for the bridge installation has taken place at the site in Sagamore Hills Township near Stanford Road.
The new program is designed ''to better engage the public in the care and feeding of the trail system,'' Stoehr said.
The initiative is getting started at the same time the federal park is taking a long look at its trail needs.
That detailed analysis, to be directed by park ecologist Kevin Skerl, will look at possible new trails in the park, connections from surrounding communities to the popular Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail, the need to rebuild the bridle trails in northern Summit County and the possibility of allowing mountain biking.
The park's last trail plan was completed in 1985 and a lot has changed in and around the park, he said.
His environmental impact study is expected to take at least two years and will include opportunities for public comment.
The park will be working with Metro Parks, Serving Summit County, and Cleveland Metroparks on the project. Also assisting will be the National Park Service's Rivers, Trails & Conservation Program, which has an office in the Cuyahoga Valley park.
For more information, go to http://www.cvnpa.org/trailsforever.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
The Cuyahoga Valley National Park is kicking off a new program to fix, restore and expand trails.
The National Park Service and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park Association, a friends-of-the-park group, are starting Trails Forever.
The goal is to raise a $10 million endowment by 2016, and the interest income on that money would fund the park's trail work, said Paul Stoehr, acting superintendent for the 33,000-acre federal park between Akron and Cleveland.
The goal of the initiative is to ensure the Cuyahoga Valley will have a top-quality trail system in the future, safe from the fluctuations of federal budgets with strong local support.
The need for such a program is great because the trails in the Cuyahoga Valley are ''one of the premier assets we have,'' he said.
New funds would augment, not replace, what funds the Cuyahoga Valley park gets for trail work under the vagaries of the federal budget process, Stoehr said.
The park typically gets about $100,000 a year for trail work, he said.
The new program, the brainchild of retired former Superintendent John P. Debo Jr., is closely patterned after a program at Acadia National Park in Maine, Stoehr said.
That program got under way in July 1999 with a $13 million fundraising campaign. Friends of Acadia raised $9 million, and the park provided $4 million through park admission fees.
The money was raised by mid-2000. The park intends to rehabilitate 130 miles of foot trails, restore 11 miles of abandoned trails and create five connector paths to nearby communities within 10 years. Acadia was the first national park with a trail endowment.
Stoehr said similar programs have been started at Golden Gate National Recreation Area in California and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina.
He and Deb Yandala of the friends group said there are five elements to the new program:
• To solidify volunteer support for trails.
• To get the public more involved in trails.
• To assist on needed capital improvements along the trails.
• To improve trailside interpretation through new wayside exhibits, printed materials and electronic technologies.
• To fund the endowment, perhaps with big boosts from charitable foundations in Northeast Ohio.
A trail improvement planned on the Brandywine Gorge Trail in northern Summit County will be the first evidence of the new program.
A new bridge will be installed in October-November by volunteers to help hikers get across Brandywine Creek.
The three-section fiberglass pedestrian bridge will be 165 feet long and 4 feet wide. It will replace crossing stones that are risky at high water.
The bridge, costing about $190,000, will be paid for by the park service. A contractor is building the concrete piers to support the bridge. Volunteers and park staff will be used to install the structure.
The Cuyahoga Valley park will pay for the bridge with money from park rentals and from admission fees paid at other national parks, Stoehr said.
Assisting on the project is the Cuyahoga Valley Trails Council, a grass-roots group that has been a longtime park partner.
Some preparatory work for the bridge installation has taken place at the site in Sagamore Hills Township near Stanford Road.
The new program is designed ''to better engage the public in the care and feeding of the trail system,'' Stoehr said.
The initiative is getting started at the same time the federal park is taking a long look at its trail needs.
That detailed analysis, to be directed by park ecologist Kevin Skerl, will look at possible new trails in the park, connections from surrounding communities to the popular Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail, the need to rebuild the bridle trails in northern Summit County and the possibility of allowing mountain biking.
The park's last trail plan was completed in 1985 and a lot has changed in and around the park, he said.
His environmental impact study is expected to take at least two years and will include opportunities for public comment.
The park will be working with Metro Parks, Serving Summit County, and Cleveland Metroparks on the project. Also assisting will be the National Park Service's Rivers, Trails & Conservation Program, which has an office in the Cuyahoga Valley park.
For more information, go to http://www.cvnpa.org/trailsforever.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
Akron, OH
Posted 09:58 PM, 09/07/2009
Brilliant! Anything to sustain or improve the CVNP trails is a good idea.
Where to we give/sign-up/support?
:0)
Akron, oh
Posted 07:00 AM, 09/08/2009
No Money until they allow public hunting
Norton, OH
Posted 08:43 AM, 09/08/2009
I agree, how can I help?
This park is a great, fun place to visit. We love hiking there.
Richfield, OH
Posted 10:15 AM, 09/08/2009
Mountain biking will increase involvement. Open it up.
Posted 11:01 AM, 09/08/2009
I can't agree more Spirit of Reagan.
Akron, OH
Posted 12:37 PM, 09/08/2009
I hope they can get that off the ground. The parks systems in this country cannot rely on the government for support. Mountain biking would be fun, and great exercise. I wouldn't have a problem with the hunting...as long as it's not me being hunted!
Orrville, Oh
Posted 02:32 PM, 09/08/2009
When did We the government; of the people, by the people, for the people; authorize The National Park Service and The Cuyahoga Valley National Park Association; to raise and collect interest; from Fathers disqualified for affirmative action with white skin, Union workers, consumers, taxpayers, and Americas grandchildren’s children; on a $10 million endowment; to ensure; Cuyahoga Valley will have a top quality Trail System in the future?
WADSWORTH, OH
Posted 04:21 PM, 09/08/2009
Some people actually get out and walk,bike,bird watch....for there own serentity.
Not like Loren...
Take your meds today??
akron, oh
Posted 09:22 PM, 09/08/2009
Endowment funds aren't taxes. They're built on donations. This isn't a bond issue. If it was, "we the people" would've had the right to vote on it and taxation would be based on majority rule.
Canton, OH
Posted 10:47 PM, 09/08/2009
sweet
Stow, OH
Posted 10:37 AM, 09/09/2009
Check out www.cvnpa.org/TrailsForever to sign up for the Trails Forever email list and find about about volunteering. To support the work of CVNPA and the Trails Forever initative visit www.cvnpa.org/GetInvolved/Donate.
