Lake Metroparks has made a heavenly addition to its 845-acre
Hell Hollow Wilderness Area in Leroy Township.
Approved at its July 15 meeting the agency’s Board of
Park Commissioners agreed to spend $175,000 in order to buy 43 acres of
basically land-locked woodlands in Leroy Township.
The new acreage dovetails nicely with the parks system’s
goal of acquiring property that is adjacent to existing holdings, says parks deputy
director, Vince Urbanski, .
“It’s a fair price, especially considering that it’s been
landlocked ever since Interstate 90 was made,” Urbanski said.
That highway delineates the property’s northern boundary
while the existing Hell Hollow portion is to the east.
Easily one of Northeast Ohio’s most rugged and
challenging properties Hell Hollow deserves the title of “Wilderness Area.”
“It’s pretty rugged so getting access there will be a
challenge,” Urbanski said. “At some point we’ll look at providing access to
this track and some other properties through a network of trails.”
Unique features of this new and long-coveted parcel
include fronting about 2,000 feet of bank along Paine Creek.
However, since the property is located upstream of Paine
Falls the opportunity for migrating steelhead to find their way to this stretch
is nil, says Urbanski.
And even though the addition of the new parcel means Hell
Hollow is now 888 acres strong this unit still stands in the acreage shadow of
942-acre Girdled Road Reservation in Concord Township.
So any future acquisition will prove a horse race as to
which unit will claim itself as the parks system’s largest entity.
“Part of our acquisition goal is to acquire property
adjacent to existing park holdings,” Urbanski said. “It’s this kind of linkage
that we’re looking for.”
In other park board activity the three-member body
approved spending $147,900 to build a 70-foot long by six-foot wide pedestrian
bridge over a 20-foot deep chasm that will link two segments of the parks
system’s ever-increasingly popular 600-acre Lake Erie Bluffs park in Perry
Township.
On one side of this natural ravine barrier is 148 acres
with remainder on the other side. By adding a pedestrian bridge consisting of an
aluminum superstructure and a wooden deck visitors will be able to hike between
the two parcels without needing to employ mountain-climbing gear.
“Construction will begin as soon as the contractor can
mobilize its resources,” Urbanski said. “We anticipate that completion will be
in October sometime, weather determining.”
Jeff is the retired
News-Herald reporter who covered the earth sciences, the area's three
county park systems and the outdoors for the newspaper. During his 30 years
with The News-Herald Jeff was the recipient of more than 100 state, regional
and national journalism awards. He also is a columnist and features writer for
the Ohio Outdoor News, which is published every other week and details the
outdoors happenings in the state.
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