Connecting Everyone to the Outdoors in Ohio!
With the many challenges facing our nation, communities in Ohio and beyond are eager for solutions. YOU are part of the solution. Together, we are not just dreaming of a healthier, more equitable, more climate-resilient future—we are actively building it.
As one of Trust for Public Land’s oldest field offices, the Ohio program carries a deep sense of pride and responsibility. Over the past 50 years, we have been significantly involved in two transformative conservation movements in northeast Ohio: The creation of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the environmental justice story arc of Cleveland and the Cuyahoga River. This river was once tainted by rampant industrial pollution, which led to the infamous river fires that catalyzed the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Water Act. Today, it is an active recreation destination and a symbol of hope for the city.
As TPL charts a forward path that will define our work for the next 50 years, the Ohio program remains committed to championing equity and taking a community-first approach as we strategically advance our mission of connecting everyone to the outdoors.
We are thrilled to welcome TPL’s new president and CEO, Dr. Carrie Besnette Hauser. She brings a wealth of experience in public policy, philanthropy, the outdoor industry, and community engagement, making her an ideal leader to propel the organization forward. Carrie’s leadership will be instrumental as we amplify our efforts to expand outdoor access through equity, health, climate, and community commitments.
This work is more critical than ever as climate change leaves communities of highest need the most vulnerable to extreme weather. In the Midwest, we must prepare for the arrival of climate refugees by increasing local support for conservation and ensuring that parks and green spaces are appropriately scaled and protected as cities develop underused land.
TPL meets this urgency head-on and has focused this past year on increasing our capacity to react quickly to priority needs. As you peruse the following pages, I invite you to review our work holistically while noting some of our most innovative programs, including the Park Equity Accelerator, the People and Birds for Land Protection program, the Community Schoolyards® initiative, a new mountain bike trail in Cleveland’s Kerruish Park, and a phyto-stability pilot project with the Cleveland Tree Coalition.
As TPL looks to the future, we remain committed to our vision of a world where every person can connect with the outdoors. Thank you for partnering with us on this journey. With your enduring support, we will continue to build parks and protect land, making Ohio a healthier and more equitable place for everyone.
Sean P. Terry Associate Vice President, Ohio State Director
Sean Terry (right) with fellow birder Gregory Orr. PHOTO BY TPL STAFF
Community First in Cleveland
“Change moves at the speed of trust,” the author Stephen M.R. Covey observed. Building trust through community engagement is a core tenet of TPL’s work. We bring together people with diverse knowledge and perspectives, enriching each project’s outcomes. We focus on community-level planning, including a mutual understanding of history, strengths, and challenges. We give residents a voice in creating parks in their communities.
We are working hand in hand with the City of Cleveland to develop its first long-range parks and recreation comprehensive plan. As a member of the Cleveland Parks & Greenspace Coalition’s steering committee, TPL hosted pop-up events in city parks to engage residents in discussions of the plan. The first event, in August 2023, gathered input for a community needs assessment; the most recent, in May 2024, elicited feedback on a draft of the plan. Park Advocate Nights, which we organize quarterly with the Cleveland Parks & Greenspace Coalition, educate and inform residents on how they can take action to improve neighborhood parks and ensure equity in park development.
TPL is also providing guidance to the Mayor’s Office of Capital Projects as it finalizes the plan and restructures the city parks department. Our relationship with the office took shape in 2022, when Mayor Justin Bibb’s commitment to park equity helped earn Cleveland a spot in our inaugural 10-Minute Walk Park Equity Accelerator (PEA) cohort. PEA cities receive powerful data resources and technical assistance for developing policies that give all residents access to a quality park
within a 10-minute walk of home. In Cleveland’s case, this technical assistance featured a year-long assessment of park conditions to help prioritize capital improvements. In addition, we deployed our ParkServe® mapping platform during community workshops to help identify neighborhoods where residents lack access to parks and to envision solutions.
The City of Cleveland has also joined TPL’s Climate-Smart Cities program, which seeks to address the impacts of climate change. Participating cities are given access to TPL’s GIS mapping tool and planning support to help them achieve resiliency goals through parks, trails, and transit lines. Such green infrastructure helps connect neighborhoods, reduce the urban heat island effect, absorb rainfall, and protect the city from flooding.
We are grateful to our partners in Cleveland and beyond for supporting a community-first approach to ensuring outdoor equity, inclusion, and access for everyone!
CINCINNATI JOINS PARK EQUITY ACCELERATOR
For a second year in a row, TPL’s 10-Minute Walk Park Equity Accelerator cohort includes a city in Ohio. Cincinnati—ranked 8th in the nation in our ParkScore® index for its excellent park system—joined the cohort in November 2023. The city is employing the technical assistance provided through the Accelerator to develop a model for using data to drive equitable park investment while engaging with the community.
Gathering community input on Cleveland parks master plan. PHOTOS BY TPL STAFF
Ohio’s Pilot Community Schoolyard
Across Ohio, too many children are growing up without access to the outdoors. Only half of the state’s residents have access to a park within a 10-minute walk of their home. Neighborhoods with a majority of residents of color typically have much less park space per person than predominantly white neighborhoods.
Our Community Schoolyards® program provides a uniquely strategic solution to this “park equity gap.”
Nationally, TPL has already transformed over 300 underutilized schoolyards into nature-rich parks that open to the community during non-school hours. Schools with Community Schoolyards have seen improved student attendance, behavior, and test scores.
In December 2023, we unveiled the concept design for the first-ever Community Schoolyard in Ohio at Caledonia Elementary School in East Cleveland. This school was selected because of its high need and high potential. The majority of students come from lowincome households, and their recess took place in an asphalt lot with no playground. But students, staff, and the surrounding community demonstrated the energy and commitment to transform the area into a green park and play space.
Beginning in spring 2023, students, teachers, staff, parents, and neighbors engaged in our participatory design process to identify priority features and develop a vision for their schoolyard. Students took the lead— evaluating the site, building models, sketching ideas, and refining design options into a final concept design.
GIVE TODAY FOR COMMUNITY SCHOOLYARDS
With your support, we can transform bleak asphalt courts into green spaces serving whole neighborhoods. Your gift will create schoolyards that strengthen communities, improve health and education outcomes, and provide nature-based climate solutions.
They presented the design to the community at the December unveiling.
The design includes an outdoor classroom, a vegetable garden, accessible play equipment, outdoor musical instruments, and a climbing wall. It also includes features for the entire community to enjoy, such as picnic areas and walking trails. The schoolyard’s permeable surfaces will absorb stormwater, while shade trees will provide respite from summer heat.
Dr. Henry Pettiegrew II, superintendent and CEO of the East Cleveland City School District, observes: “This is not just about our kindergarten through second-grade students being able to go out for recess. This is about how we enable an entire community to be able to come together, gather, and have a wonderful, fun time in a state-of-the-art experience.”
We expect the schoolyard’s construction to be completed during the 2024–25 school year. Meanwhile, we are identifying potential sites in neighboring school districts for future schoolyard transformations.
Caledonia students unveil schoolyard concept design and discuss schoolyard priorities.
PHOTOS BY TPL STAFF
Saving Places, Past and Future
More than 60 percent of the world’s coastal wetlands have disappeared within the last century. Along the Great Lakes, less than half the high-priority coastal wetlands are protected.
A notable exception is East Sandusky Bay, where we saved 1,300 acres of wetlands in partnership with Erie Metroparks through a series of land purchases between 2003 and 2012. This site was a conservation priority because it harbored one of Lake Erie’s last naturally functioning marshes, a critical habitat for threatened and endangered animal and plant species. At the intersection of two migratory bird routes, the marsh was known as a prime birdwatching location.
Today, the marsh ecosystem is healthier than ever; control of invasive plant species has allowed native vegetation to rebound. The preserve has hiking trails and a kayak launch. And as the public becomes more aware of the threats posed by climate change, other benefits of these wetlands gain recognition. The marsh reduces the risk of flooding on nearby land by absorbing rainwater, helps protect the shoreline from erosion, and serves as a natural water filter, trapping pollutants and sediments that would otherwise flow into Lake Erie.
The investments we made in East Sandusky Bay 20 years ago continue to enrich the region with fresh air and
water, improved climate resiliency, outdoor adventure, and the beauty of untouched nature.
A GREATER CUYAHOGA
In 1978, our very first land protection project in Ohio helped create the verdant Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Over the years, we played a role in purchasing 2,350 acres for the park—and we’re about to add more.
Next to the park’s Blossom Music Center is an 85-acre inholding that had been privately owned for many years. Surrounded by more than 200 acres of land that we acquired for the National Park Service over a decade ago, the property contains streams that flow into the Cuyahoga River as well as steep, densely forested slopes.
TPL is now using its land transaction expertise to facilitate the parcel’s purchase for the National Park Service. Deb Yandala, president and CEO of the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park and a member of our Ohio advisory board, says, “Preserving this property, which is nestled against other protected land, is critical to the ecology of the park. It stops the encroaching development along the rim of the park…. TPL understands at its core the value of lands for public enjoyment and for protection for future generations.”
Help us safeguard priority lands in the face of increasing threats to fragile and essential landscapes.
LEFT: East Sandusky Bay. RIGHT: Towpath Trail, Cuyahoga Valley National Park. PHOTOS BY DARCY KIEFEL
Blazing Trails in the Forest City
Our vision is that every neighborhood has equitable access to urban, suburban, and rural trails, connecting people to nature, recreation, schools, workplaces, and their broader community.
In Cleveland, we have connected people to natural treasures via the Towpath Trail, which leads from the city to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and the Cleveland Foundation Centennial Lake Link Trail, which provides a route to the shores of Lake Erie from the Towpath Trail and inner-city neighborhoods.
Another trail we recently helped create, the Red Line Greenway, connects the Cleveland Foundation Centennial Lake Link Trail to rapid transit stations and provides a commuting corridor to the edge of downtown Cleveland. Now, we are working with the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority to explore the feasibility of extending the greenway into downtown.
On the southeast side of Cleveland, we are developing plans for a new mountain bike trail and other improvements in Kerruish Park, one of the largest open spaces in the city. Our first step is to find out what park users and neighbors want to see in their park. We are meeting with the neighborhood association, holding pop-up events at the park to discuss the idea with the community, and fielding surveys.
One of the community’s concerns is that ATV and motorcycle riders illegally drive through the park, resulting in damage and noise. Residents hope a mountain bike trail will provide riders with an alternative sport that provides the thrill of movement while encouraging a healthier connection with the outdoors.
We are also engaging with partners to help with trail and park design. The International Mountain Bike Association is ready to work with us on the trail, envisioned as an introductory course that will invite bikers of all levels. To incorporate ideas from the community into park design and programming plans, we are collaborating with the ACE Mentor Program— which provides hands-on experience to high school and college students interested in architecture, construction, and engineering—and with See You at the Top (Syatt), a grassroots organization that provides culturally relevant programming to connect communities of color in Cleveland to the natural environment.
In fall 2024, with the community’s input and help from our partners, we aim to complete a concept design— the first-ever mountain bike course in a City of Cleveland park!
GIVE TODAY FOR TRAILS
Your support will enable us to design and build the new mountain bike trail in Kerruish Park— and encourage people to get outside, get active, and connect with their community.
Cleveland Foundation Centennial Lake Link Trail. PHOTO BY KYLE LANZER/CLEVELAND METROPARKS
Kerruish Park, site of a future mountain bike trail. PHOTO BY TPL STAFF
People and Birds for Land Protection
Birdwatching has the potential to connect people of all ages and abilities with nature. Yet the birding community has struggled to become fully inclusive: historically, it has been a white-dominated space.
This spring, TPL and the outdoor advocacy organization Journey on Yonder hosted a series of inclusive birding events to engage both novice and experienced birdwatchers who identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC). The series was part of our People and Birds for Land Protection effort funded by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
The series featured a guided walk in the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area during the Biggest Week in American Birding (BWIAB), which draws nearly 100,000 visitors to the Lake Erie shoreline east of Toledo. There, during the spring migration, observers are treated to some of the country’s finest birdwatching. Participants in our birding walk also had the chance to meet BWIAB keynote speaker Christian Cooper, author of Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World.
During Black Birders Week, we invited BIPOC birders to a hike at the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve, where experienced birding volunteers and a Cleveland
Metroparks naturalist shared knowledge of birds and the ecosystems in which they thrive.
“We heard birds chirping, flying high above us and perched up somewhere nearby,” recalls Kim Woodford, Journey on Yonder founder and TPL Ohio advisory board member. “The experience offered a fun and unique way to connect to nature in which parents were able to share in their child’s excitement over spotting their first American goldfinch or red-winged black bird in flight…. I’m always grateful to be able to engage Black and Brown people out in nature.”
CLEANING UP WITH TREES: A Phyto-Stability Pilot
Many people recognize that trees provide cooling shade, filter pollutants from the air, are fun to climb, and make open spaces more inviting. But trees have a hidden superpower: they remove toxins from the earth through a process called phytoremediation.
With funding from the Cleveland Tree Coalition, TPL is planting trees on contaminated vacant lots along the Morgana Run Trail, which follows an old rail corridor through the Slavic Village, a neighborhood on the southeast side of Cleveland. Over the course of a 10-year tree maturity cycle, this pilot project aims to reduce the presence of heavy metals (cadmium, zinc, and copper) and toxins like PCB and VOCs in the soil and to keep these contaminants from spreading (that is, to phyto-stabilize them).
We hope this project will inspire other neighborhoods contending with soil contamination to invest in green spaces and nature-based solutions.
Birding in Magee Marsh Wildlife Area.
PHOTO BY TPL STAFF
OHIO ADVISORY BOARD
Raymond Evans , (Chair ), retired, FirstEnergy
Stephen Abdenour, retired, Cleveland Clinic
Dylan Beach , Goodyear
Mark A. Biggar, Jones Day
Sara Robinson Enaharo, Milliken & Company
Kenneth G. Howe , retired, Cargill
Michelle L. Johnson , SmithGroup
Karl Kleinert , Leapfrog Services Inc.
Christopher Kuhar, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Dave Mayer, McKinsey & Company
Kenneth Paull , Sequoia Financial Group
Christine Rupert , Cargill
Siu Yan Scott , Case Western Reserve University
Thomas Tyrrell , CollaboRx
Jason Wood , Arhaus
Kimberly Woodford , Journey on Yonder
Deb Yandala , Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park
tpl.org/donate/oh