Photo Credit: Summit Metro Parks
“Some people look for a beautiful place. Others make a place beautiful.” -- Hazrat Inayat Khan, spiritualist
First, there was a vast forest punctuated with wetlands, streams, small openings, and maybe an isolated patch of prairie. The only features that would have broken the mosaic of trees were the Cuyahoga and the Little Cuyahoga Rivers near Akron, Ohio. Located at the confluence of these two waterways, Valley View would have sported a rare opening in the tree canopy. The area has lived many lives over the past two hundred years. In fact, archaeologists and historians at Summit Metro Parks are presently investigating a small neighborhood that once existed in the northern section of the property and a possible boatyard that might have constructed ships for Commodore Perry in the War of 1812. The area was once a dairy farm and for the last 40 years has been a golf course. Each of these incarnations is a story of its own, but I would like to share what I’ve learned so far during the ecological restoration of this landscape.
Step 1: Plan for land. In 1925, the park district hired the internationally famous Olmsted Brothers to develop the first master plan, and this comprehensive land-acquisition strategy has driven Summit Metro Parks for nearly 100 years. The Olmsted Brothers saw the value of the land, and the park district has been buying land around this area for decades. The acquisition of Valley View Golf Course was the crowning jewel in a contiguous line of natural areas along the Cuyahoga River. Gorge Metro Park, Cascade Valley Metro Park, and Sand Run Metro Park are now joined through Valley View to create a nearly 2,000-acre natural area.