A WALK IN THE PARK 2023

Many Cleveland Heights residents and visitors are surprised to learn that there are 140 acres of nearby parks with accessible trails and a rich history. Friends of Heights Parks, a nonprofit organization, is presenting a free Walk in the Park at 10 a.m. the third Saturday of every month May through October, 2023, to remedy this.

All of the 1- to 2-hour walks encompass both human and natural history, and will feature exploring more than hiking.

Saturday, May 20, 10 a.m @ Lower Lake with John Barber

Join us at 10:00 on Saturday, May 20th for the first Walk in the Parks around Lower Lake in the Doan Brook watershed.  We’ll walk about a mile over wood chip-covered paths, looking at the natural history of this lake created by the Shakers in the 1830’s.  We’ll see the remnants of beautification projects by prominent landscape architects and our local Shaker Lakes Garden Club.   Stewardship volunteers will point out changes implemented to increase biodiversity. We advise wearing long pants, socks, and closed-toe shoes as our native Poison Ivy is found in some places around the lake.

John has been a citizen scientist for over fifty years, active in green space preservation; the recovery of Peregrine Falcon populations; the continuing recovery of Eastern Bluebirds; and monitoring wildlife populations in suburban parklands. Now retired after 35 years in the business world, he is focused on restoring and maintaining biodiversity. He passionately performs habitat restoration with native plants.

A resident of Cleveland Heights, he served on the board of the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes for ten years, including two terms as Board President. He now serves as a member of the Council of the Native Plant Trust. John is a Certified Watershed Steward with the Cleveland Metroparks.  He is co-leading the Friends of Lower Lake, a volunteer program of the Doan Brook Watershed Partnership, working to restore habitat in the Shaker Parklands. He also is a founding director of the Friends of Heights Parks.

Saturday, June 17, 10 a.m @ Cain Park with Ksenia Roshchakovsky

The Cain Park walk will begin at the Cain Park ticket office starting with what were the glimmers of Cain Park to come in 1934. It will continue with the history that began in 1938 with the building of the Amphitheatre (now renamed the Evans Amphitheater), the Administration Building, the Colonnade and Terrace, the Dressing Room building, the Alma Theater and the Art Gallery. Participants will glimpse the load-in of the Pat Metheny concert taking place from the seating area; no backstage access for tour participants because of the load-in taking place. Every participant in the Cain Park Walk on June 18 can take home THE HALCYON YEARS by Dina Rees Evans. It’s her memoir of how Cain Park came to be.

Ksenia Roshchakovsky began her love affair with Cain Park in 1989 when she started working for the City of Cleveland Heights in the PR office. She was the Cain Park PR/Marketing Manager until she retired in January, 2022. Prior to that she was Director of Communications for Notre Dame College and began her career working at Playhouse Square under Ray Shepardson.

Saturday, July 15, 10 a.m @ Schoolhouse and Cumberland Parks with Kara Hamley O'Donnell

Join us at 10:00 a.m. on July 15 for A Walk in the Park around Cumberland and Schoolhouse parks in the Dugway Brook watershed.  We’ll walk about 1.5 miles on asphalt paths and grass learning about the natural and built history of two of the city’s earliest parks.  Learn about nationally known landscape architect A.D. Taylor, a Cleveland Heights resident, who designed the layout of both Cumberland and Forest Hill parks. We’ll also share the history of the city’s oldest surviving schoolhouse, Cumberland’s bathhouse and pool, and the city’s veterans memorials.  

Kara’s interest in Cleveland Heights’ history and architecture began as she wrote her Master’s thesis on the history of the Coventry and Cedar Fairmount neighborhoods and has continued in the ensuing 30 years.  She was the City of Cleveland Heights’ Historic Preservation Planner and Senior Planner for 25 years and is currently the Principal Planner for the City of Shaker Heights.

A resident of Cleveland Heights since the early 1990s, she can often be found gardening at her Coventry home and strolling the city’s neighborhoods, commercial districts, and parks.  Kara holds a Bachelor of Environmental Design from Miami University and a Master of Arts in Historic Preservation Planning from Cornell University.  

Saturday, August 19, 10 a.m @ Forest Hill Park with Elsa Johnson

Forest Hill Park, created in 1936, spans Cleveland Heights (1/3) and East Cleveland (2/3). The Metroparks are newly managing the East Cleveland portion.The combined Forest Hill Park is a large (248 acres) topographically varied park of level upland meadows and oak woodlands, contrasting with steep, shaley, beech studded hillsides overlooking valleys that two branches of Dugway Brook flow through. While the park includes facilities for recreational sports (baseball and tennis), the greater part is natural. This is the park we shall explore.

The walk will be divided into two parts: a walk in the upland flat areas along paved paths, suitable for almost everyone, and then, part two, a hike down into the valley along the Dugways before returning to our starting place. While this latter hike is largely not difficult, the trails are dirt, studded with tree roots, sometimes uneven, and, as well, there are steep areas. Each walk will take about 45 minutes to an hour.

The walk will be led by Elsa Johnson, longtime volunteer in the park (and landscape designer, poet, and artist.)

Saturday, September 16, 10 a.m @ Area 51 with Tim Kalan

Explore an overlooked natural area in the Doan Brook floodplain with a volunteer who has been removing invasive species and planting native ones in the Doan Brook watershed since 2018. The meeting place will be provided upon registration.

Saturday, October 21, 10 a.m @ Lakeview Cemetery with Kevin McNallie

The tour will begin at Daffodil Hall, located at the bottom of Daffodil Hill.  We’ll be walking through several sections of the cemetery, observing the flora with an eye towards natives.  The tour will pass several Moses Cleaveland Trees along with the nearly exclusively native-planted area along the lower pond.  Although the cemetery, now a fully accredited arboretum, contains many nonnative species, in recent years we’ve emphasized the use of natives with the goal of planting at least 75% native. 

Kevin McNallie has been the horticulturist at Lake View since February, 2021.  Before that, he worked for the New York State Office of Parks for 32 years.  For many of those years, he designed, installed and maintained restoration and landscape projects.  During his final years with Parks, he created a native plant nursery supplying 35 parks and several environmental organizations in WNY with trees, shrubs, forbs and grasses grown from locally collected seed and vegetative propagules.