AKRON, Ohio — With some human assistance, Mother Nature is reclaiming several hundred acres of what used to be an Akron golf course.
This summer, Summit Metro Parks started construction on one of the final phases of a project to restore the former Valley View Golf Club. The park system purchased the 200-acre golf course in 2016, adding the Valley View Area to Cascade Valley Metro Park and re-establishing the land’s natural features.
“This always seemed like it was kind of an unused area. So we were really excited when Metro Parks took it over and then when they were able to turn it into a hiking trail,” said Allie Courtemanche, who was hiking the trail Sunday evening with her husband and their dog.
The couple, who’s lived nearby the park for 17 years, remembers when the property was a golf course and said they appreciate the investment to turn it into a more accessible public space.
“It’ll be exciting to see what it’s like when it’s done. You have a vision of what it’s going to be,” said Greg Courtemanche.
Prior to its function as a golf course, the property served as one of Akron’s last dairy farms. In the 1940s, part of the land was also home to a racially integrated neighborhood, which was a rarity for the time.
Nearly a century ago, shortly after the Summit Metro Parks was founded, the Park System identified the Valley View area as a segment of nature worth preserving. Now, restoration efforts are turning the clock back, transforming it into something resembling the land used by the area’s indigenous people as a valuable resource and transportation route.
“For a couple hundred years, people have been generally been trying to push nature away,” said Robert Curtis, the Supervisor of Ecological Resources at Summit Metro Parks. “We basically set the stage for nature to take it the rest of the way.”
Curtis explained Metro Parks was working to mitigate invasive species at the site even before the park system took possession. After 2016, they removed non-native trees, grass, and plants and planted wild grasses, nuts and flowers native to the area.
The team also restored the eroded banks of the stretch of Cuyahoga River that once flowed through the golf course, allowing water to spill into its natural floodplain.
“We’ve created 25 acres of wetlands, about 2,500 lineal feet of streams, and then phase 2 of the project was to restore the river,” Curtis said.
Erosion and pollution had driven away wildlife and aquatic species from the river. A $3 million restoration effort is bringing them back.
“The Cuyahoga River used to be, for all intents and purposes, kind of a dead river. Survey results from the 60s and 70s by the National Park Service have shown no signs of aquatic life, no fish presence in the river,” explained Claire Merrick, the Manager of Marketing and Public Relations at Summit Metro Parks.
She said river quality monitoring now shows the fish population has tripled, and species that could not have previously survived are thriving in the river.
“We’re seeing fish that are showing us signs of a healthy river, species that have not been detected there before are now being detected, and over time, we only expect to see those results improve,” Merrick said.
In June 2023, construction started on the next phase. Crews have been clearing the way for new, high-quality river access. The project will include new hiking and biking trails, a place to put in kayaks and canoes, a natural play area, restrooms and several gathering spaces.
“As we’ve restored this section of the Cuyahoga River a result of the restoration of Valley View, people have really expressed a desire to enjoy it. We’re bringing that opportunity to them,” Merrick said.
Curtis added, “We hope this succeeds into forest and meadow and diversity and habitats here. When people get out into those spaces, it’s refreshing, it’s regenerative, and there’s something healing about that into our souls.”
Summit Metro Parks has received private donations and public funding, including a sizable grant from the Land and Conservation Fund. It’s still actively seeking funding for its ongoing restoration efforts.
The river access project is slated to be completed in the spring of 2024.
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