LANDLINE Summer 2014 SAVING the WOODS How Determined Residents Preserved a Doomed Forest

A Western Reserve Land Conservancy newsletter www.wrlandconservancy.org LANDLINE Summer 2014 SAVING THE WOODS How determined residents preserved a doomed forest In 2011, a group of North them to bring their checkbooks,” Kingsville residents were said neighbor Ron Santee. stunned to learn they were about For the more than two to lose the forest where their dozen residents, clear-cutting children played, where teens the forest was unthinkable. posed for prom photos next “What would we have if it to the big tree with the wildly was gone?” asked neighbor crooked branch, where colorful Penny Coxe. Resident Jill dragonflies congregated, where Peet added, “We did not a peaceful walk could help sort want this devastation in our out a jumbled day. neighborhood.” The new owner of the What happened next was 26-acre property was going to nothing short of amazing. Within clear-cut the forest. Most of a week, the group -- called the those who live next to the woods North Kingsville Woodland and found out about the timbering Wetland Preservation – secured plan from a letter to the editor about $65,000 in pledges, written by alarmed neighbors enough to make what amounted Bill and Kim Tackett. Bill Tackett to a non-refundable down learned about the logging by payment on the property. A talking to the surveyors roaming petition opposing the timbering the property. plan garnered 1,300 signatures. “NK land to be gutted,” read the newspaper headline. Over the next three years, the neighborhood organized bake sales, A handful of distraught residents gathered. “We had a dozen folks,” 5-kilometer runs through the woods, 50/50 raffles, rummage sales and said Beverly Santee, one of the residents, “with tears in their eyes.” other fundraisers. The Santees’ own grandson sold lemonade and gave up The neighbors had no idea what to do and little time to deliberate, his $50 vacation spending money for the cause. The girl who won the 50/50 since the timbering was to start in two weeks. The landowner told the raffle gave the $400 back to the group. residents he’d sell the property to them – for twice the amount he paid for The residents also turned to Brett Rodstrom, the Land Conservancy’s it. Undaunted, residents passed out fliers inviting people to meet at the vice president of eastern field operations, for help. Rodstrom began a Presbyterian Church of North Kingsville to discuss the proposal. “We told continued page 5 Akron property survey is our largest to date A citywide survey to determine the Institute and conducted by the East Akron Pleasant and Buckeye neighborhoods of number of vacant residential structures in Neighborhood Development Corporation, will Cleveland. Akron and the condition of all properties in cover about 90,000 parcels. It is the largest Thriving Communities is currently the municipality is expected to be completed such survey undertaken to date by Thriving working with several other cities that have by the end of summer. Communities Institute, which has completed expressed interest in property surveys. If The survey, coordinated by the Land similar projects in the cities of Lorain, East your community is interested, please contact Conservancy’s Thriving Communities Cleveland and Oberlin as well as in the Mount continued page 4 1 Project will expand Lorain County park Lorain County Metro Parks will be able to Natural Resources Assistance Council of Huron, expand its Cassell Reservation by 62 acres after Lorain and Medina counties. the Land Conservancy worked with the district The parkland has a diverse wildlife habitat, to acquire the property and put a conservation including 50 acres of early to mid-successional easement on it. stages of maple-oak-sassafras hardwood forest Cassell Reservation is a 155-acre park about as well as wetland forest, scrub-shrub habitat, two miles east of Vermilion. old field habitat, emergent marsh and vernal The Land Conservancy acquired the new pools. These habitats provide shelter, food, parkland, located on Parkside Reserve Street, and nesting areas for birds, small and large The protected property contains a marsh and on behalf of Lorain County Metro Parks. The mammals and other wildlife. vernal pools. organization secured funding for the purchase Eight properties with Land Conservancy of the conservation easement through a grant conservation easements are located within of the general public. The Land Conservancy from the Clean Ohio Green Space Conservation seven miles of Cassell Reservation. The congratulates Lorain County Metro Parks on the Fund. The Land Conservancy thanks its partners additional property will create a contiguous block permanent protection of this property and its at the Ohio Public Works Commission, which of passive-use public parkland that will preserve continued devotion to conservation and the wise provides the Clean Ohio funding, the District 9 and foster outdoor recreation and education use of natural resources. Outdoors Medina County woman groups makes preservation dream a reality preserve Facing a acreage in terminal illness, Paula Momchilov Ashtabula chose to focus on her dream County of protecting The Ashtabula County Wildlife Conservation League property is her property as adjacent to The Nature Conservancy’s Morgan Swamp Preserve. a gift to future generations. In May, The Land Conservancy has partnered with two conservation-minded outdoors groups to she realized that permanently preserve an additional 236 acres in Ashtabula County. dream by donating In separate projects, the Land Conservancy worked with the Ashtabula County Wildlife a conservation easement on her property to the Conservation League to protect 149 acres in Morgan Township and with the Ashtabula Beagle Club Land Conservancy. to preserve 87 acres in Sheffield Township. Conservation easements now protect both properties. The property, located in Medina County’s On both projects, the Land Conservancy secured federal funding for the purchase of the Montville Township, includes a mix of forest, open conservation easements through grants from the North American Wetlands Conservation Act fields and a home site. It also contains more than (NAWCA). The Land Conservancy thanks its generous partners at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1,000 linear feet of Tuscarawas River tributaries. which provides the NAWCA funding, and its partners at Ducks Unlimited, which administers the In addition, the land is just north of the Medina NAWCA grants. County Park District’s River Styx Park, which The Wildlife Conservation League property, which is adjacent to The Nature Conservancy’s attracts uncommon neotropical nesting birds that 1,400-acre Morgan Swamp Preserve on four sides and is near the Wild and Scenic Grand River, fly from the rain forests of Central America to has 105 acres of pristine and biologically diverse wetlands and is home to 18 state-listed species. spend their summers in northern Ohio. The Conservation League is a group of 11 conservation clubs and associations in Ashtabula County. “We are grateful to Paula Momchilov for The Beagle Club property, located on Hines Road, contains about 70 acres of high quality preserving her land for future generation, and wetlands and is currently managed as a hunting club used to train beagles as hunting dogs. The we know that completion of this easement has property provides diverse habitat for fish and wildlife and includes nearly one mile of high quality provided her peace of mind,” said Bill Jordan, tributaries to Griggs Creek, a major tributary of the Grand River. associate field director for the Land Conservancy. The Land Conservancy congratulates both the Ashtabula County Wildlife Conservation League Paula Momchilov is a client of attorney Jeff and the Ashtabula Beagle Club for permanently protecting these properties. Such protection Holland, a Land Conservancy trustee who brought provides food, shelter and nesting areas for wildlife, helps control flooding and improves water the land-preservation opportunity to the attention quality in the Grand River watershed. of the organization. 2 Land bank conference is Maple Heights, Land Conservancy Sept. 11-12 in Columbus preserve 24-acre parcel near park The fourth annual County Land Bank Conference, a gathering of local, regional and national leaders on the topic of urban land use and revitalization, will take place Sept. 11-12 at The Westin Hotel in Columbus. The conference is sponsored by the Land Conservancy’s Thriving Communities Institute, which works statewide to revitalize Ohio’s urban centers. Speakers and panel discussions will cover a range of topics – from land bank strategies, to community engagement, to greening and reforestation projects – with the intention of sharing practices and findings to continue the progress already being made in these areas of our communities. To register and learn about updates on programming and speakers, visit www. thrivingcommunitiesinstitute.org, or contact The property is in the Tinker’s Creek watershed. Kate Hydock at (216) 515-8300 or khydock@ wrlandconservancy.org. The city of Maple Heights and the nonprofit Western Reserve Land Conservancy’s Thriving The cost for those who register by Aug. 31 Communities Institute have partnered to create a new 24-acre nature preserve at the Bedford is $150 for the full conference and $100 for one border. day only. After that rates will be $175 and $125. The project was completed at no cost to city taxpayers. “This conference has grown into a must- The parcel is off both Granite Road and Pennsylvania Avenue, adjacent to the boundary attend event for all those who are interested in line with Bedford, and less than half a mile north of the Cleveland Metroparks Bedford the future of Ohio cities that were devastated Reservation. A stream valley connects the properties and serves as a basis for extending by the foreclosure crisis,” said Jim Rokakis, the corridor, and additional phases of this project could include a trail connecting an adjacent director of Thriving Communities Institute and industrial park to the Metroparks.

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