With four American bald eagles soaring
in the thermals above them, about 100 people were witnesses to the
protection of 600 acres of Lake County that includes 9,000 feet of
Lake Erie shoreline.
Dedicated today (Sept. 16) was a 200-acre expansion of Lake
Metroparks' all-new Lake Erie Bluffs Park, located in Perry Township.
Backed by a 13-party partnership that included
local, state and federal governmental agencies and non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), the project cost $11 million, including $10 million in donations and competitive grants.
Among the outfits concerned enough to
lock-up the Bluffs site for now and tomorrow were the Ohio Department
of Natural Resources, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the
Clean Ohio Fund, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Trust for
Public Land, the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, the Lake County
Soil and Water Conservation District, and, of course, Lake
Metroparks.
The thing is, stated the Trust's senior
projects manager Dave Vasarhelyi, people need land to connect with.
Otherwise, said Vasarhelyi said, “they will loose that appreciation
for the land and the stewardship that goes along with it.”
“It's been a great collaboration of
so many entities,” also said Frank Polivka, president of the parks
system's park board.
Yep, that's the case for sure, said
Cameron Davis, senior senior adviser to the administrator of the U.S.
EPA.
“The Great Lakes Protection Fund
makes it possible for so many entities to come together for projects
like this one,” Davis said. “But it doesn't happen by a magic
wand.”
Nope, and neither does the physical
grunt work in moving from the planning stage to the actual nuts and
bolts building and operational stage.
Not only did the parks system spearhead
the mundane paperwork stuff the agency's go-to natural resources
members were the boots on the ground.
In only a few short weeks a cadre of
these employees carved out a 1,700-foot driveway and ample parking
lot out of a second- (or maybe third or possibly, forth-) growth
forest and weed-choked meadow that featured its share of poison ivy
and ticks.
“Yeah, I'm still scratching,” said
one smiling Lake Metroparks staff member while another said he thinks
he may have encountered a tick bite or two.
Constructed by the agency's natural
resources staff was a trail to the pebbly Lake Erie “beach,” a
few park benches overlooking the lake, signage as well as a minimal
amount of other amenities.
Which suits parks officials just fine.
Lake Erie Bluffs is not going to fall
into that category of parks where ballfields, playground equipment
and tackiness rules, agency officials say.
Instead, this is going to be a place
for a stroll down to a primitive, unimproved lake beach and a
to-die-for view of Lake Erie where sunsets will probably be enough to
satisfy the most discriminating park visitor, says Paul Palagyi, Lake
Metroparks' executive director.
Yet some improvements and tweaking will
still come about, Palagyi said as well.
Among the anticipated to-come additions
will be a four-season shelter that overlooks the lake along with a
nearby 50-foot-tall observation tower, Palaygi said.
“When we're asked what we're going to
do here at Lake Erie Bluffs Park our answer is a 'light touch,'”
Palagyi said. “We don't need or want a heavy hand here.”
And that light touch will be around for
a very long time, opined Richard Cochran, president and CEO of the
Western Reserve Land Conservancy.
“Two hundred years from now there
will still be a healthy and viable place for our descendents to
enjoy,” Cochran said.
Maybe the best summation came from Lake
County nurseryman Mark Gilson, whose local life and livelihood are
sewn together so seamlessly with Lake Erie and its coast that the
fabric has become a one-and-the-same tapestry.
“Some areas are so important that
they have to be protected for everybody for all time,” Gilson said.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
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