Landscape Information
Situated approximately ten miles east of downtown Cleveland, this 155-acre park offers refuge from its surroundings, dominated by residential and commercial development. The site, characterized by gently rolling topography, was designed as a private golf course in 1921 by Donald Ross. In 2012 non-profit, The Conservation Fund purchased the property from Acacia Shareholders and donated the site to Cleveland Metroparks, who engaged the firm Biohabitats to prepare an Ecological Restoration Master Plan. Published in 2014, the master plan guides the transition of the landscape from a relatively homogenous golf course to a diverse, forested preserve.
From the park’s entrance, along Cedar Road, curvilinear paved paths, which originally accommodated golf carts, lead visitors throughout the grounds. As the interconnected paths navigate through the park and its diverse habitats, including streams, ponds, meadows, and forests, each turn unveils a picturesque scene. Signs placed throughout the property interpret the restoration process and the site’s ecological communities.
The westernmost path skirts Euclid Creek, which feeds Lake Erie, and winds through the southwest portion of the park, which is shaded by a riparian, deciduous forest. Other paths proceed from the primary entrance, passing through former fairways edged by copses of oak, maple, pine, hickory, willow, and birch. The fairways, no longer mowed, have been succeeded by grass and wildflower meadows. Tree saplings are interspersed throughout the meadows, the first volunteers of the second-growth forest that will eventually dominate the site.
