Nurturing our Natural Environment

Where trees provide refuge

Upwards of 1,000 trees are planned for Irishtown Bend Park, including West 25th Street.

Climate change impacts are especially grave for older residents and those with limited income or mobility living near urban heat islands. The tree cover, vegetation, and green space at Irishtown Bend Park will mitigate these impacts by helping to reduce summer peak temperatures and air pollution.

Irishtown Bend Park will support better health outcomes for all Clevelanders — especially at-risk populations.

The Park will also improve neighborhood aesthetics, provide wildlife habitats, enhance property values, and attract new businesses.

Where a natural state is restored

Irishtown Bend Park will support the inclusion of native plant species that contribute to climate resiliency, tree cover, and wetland retention.

The Cuyahoga River is showing signs of long-term recovery following more than a century of industrial pollution. Stabilizing the Irishtown Bend hillside, growing native plants in place of invasive ones, and preserving the Park’s wetlands will help ensure continued water quality improvements.

Irishtown Bend Park’s wetland areas will improve water quality, provide wildlife habitats, and encourage opportunities for recreation. This Park’s green bulkheads will also support local wildlife, creating a habitat for larval fish along a stretch of the river that has been heavily altered from its natural state.

Irishtown Bend Park is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change the course of history for Cleveland and the Cuyahoga River.

An area once riddled with industrial pollutants, an abandoned hillside town, a burning river, and an unstable slope on the verge of destroying a thriving shipping channel … this place has a long history and, now, an opportunity for a bright future.

Irishtown Bend Park will turn a neglected hillside into a beautiful, riverfront green space celebrating the convergence of nature, history, and culture.

Where industry and nature coexist

For anyone who cares about social or environmental justice, this is an exemplary project. A river that once was a polluted fire hazard is now a place for rowing, fishing, and wildlife; neighborhoods with virtually no green space will now have a 23-acre, riverfront park; an area that once divided communities, industry, and nature will provide room for them to coexist. Irishtown Bend Park — when complete — will be a beautiful comeback story.

— Scott Cataffa Professional Landscape Architect and Partner at Plural; Northeast Ohio native; lead designer for Irishtown Bend Park