What Makes Geauga a Gem - Geauga Park District

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Geauga: a Gem
by Sandy Ward, Editor
Headwaters
When the conservation community thinks
of Geauga, it doesn’t think maple syrup –
first and foremost, it thinks headwaters,
the birth of a water system, where water
flows off surrounding land into a defined
path.
Among its biggest fans is Dr. Jim
Bissell, renowned curator of botany
and coordinator of natural areas at the
Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
“You protect the headwaters of the river
streams in Northeast Ohio for all the
rest of us,” Bissell said. “All the streams
coming off Geauga County are exceptional
quality, and those of us downstream have
to thank the Park District for that.”
Four river streams start in Geauga:
• Northwest, deep ravines and steep
forested slopes send
the Chagrin River
headwaters toward
Lake County. Find
these at The Rookery,
Bass Lake Preserve,
The West Woods,
Orchard Hills Park and
Sunnybrook Preserve.
• Southeast,
highlands at Swine
Creek Reservation and
Chickagami Park start
one of the
state’s finest rivers,
the Grand, which flows toward Ashtabula
and Lake, then back to Big Creek Park.
• In central Geauga, exceptional
wetlands send one branch of the upper
Cuyahoga River headwaters from
Observatory Park, where you can literally
jump across it, through Burton Wetlands
and Eldon Russell Park, then back toward
Cleveland. (This is also the part of the river
that gives it the “crooked river” name.)
• A tiny tributary of the Mahoning River
also starts south, in Troy Township, near
Chickagami Park.
While all are high-quality resources, the
Geauga is graced with three major
headwaters — and biodiversity
to prove their high quality
Chagrin River tributary at
Observatory Park - Montville
Chagrin River watershed in particular has
the highest percentage of unpolluted,
cold, spring-fed streams in Ohio, with
about 50 percent of them in
Geauga, said Amy Brennan,
executive director of the
Chagrin River Watershed
Partners.
“These streams are unique
because they always have
groundwater flow coming to
them, which provides habitat
for bugs and fish exclusively
adapted to cold water,” she
said. “Many Geauga residents
rely on that same groundwater
for their drinking water supply.”
Speaking of drinking water,
it’s a good thing Akron needs
some – it preserves much of
the Cuyahoga and surrounding
wetlands through Geauga
County property it owns
to secure its water source.
“They’ve saved a lot of
biodiversity,” Pira said.
Intact flood plains on
these preserves help slow
down water and prevent
flooding and erosion, said
Pete McDonald, director of
stewardship for Western
Reserve Land Conservancy.
Added Bissell, “Plus, you
probably know there's one
damselfly on the Cuyahoga River that's no
place else in the state, and then there's
the endangered Racket-tailed Emerald at
Pine Brook
Preserve and
Lake Kelso,
and a cool
beetle not
described
until 1996
found on
several
museum
preserves in Ashtabula now
found in Geauga County, and...“
Racket-tailed Emerald dragonfly
Biodiversity
Bissell, Pira and other biologists find
different plants and animals living
in Geauga because of its unique
microhabitats. Lake and Cuyahoga
are more developed; Ashtabula, more
influenced by agriculture.
For instance, one particular Ohio
endangered mussel is only found in the
Cuyahoga River flowing out of East Branch
Reservoir.
A particularly special locale is near Burton
Wetlands Nature Preserve and its beautiful
Lake Kelso, a kettle hole depression;
biologists call it the Cuyahoga Wetlands.
Just south of there, White Pine Bog Forest
is also a Registered
Natural Landmark
through the National
Park Service.
“It’s unique and
pristine and just a
really fine example
of this type of
white pine bog/fen
forest that was here
thousands of years
ago but you can’t
find it anymore,”
Pira said.
Geauga Park District
also protects some
awesome fens,
a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich
groundwater.
“Fens and bogs are some of the rarest
communities anywhere, and they all
deserve to be protected,” Bissell said.
“The nice thing is, you can go to Lake
Kelso, stand on the boardwalk and look
at an outstanding glacial lake, fen system
and typical boreal forest. It's a wonderful
place to introduce people to bogs without
getting their feet wet.”
Wooded areas
Like Lake and Ashtabula, Geauga Park
District houses many cool hemlock woods
that harbor unique northern species
normally found in Canada and Appalachian
species such as northern nesting birds:
Magnolia Warblers, Winter Wrens and
Dark-eyed Juncos.
“If they can find suitable micro-habitats – a
little more moisture, shaded and cool all
summer long – they will come down to
Geauga County to nest,” Pira said.
And while it’s neat to talk about the rare
things, biologists also get excited about
Geauga’s beech-maple forests.
Lake Kelso in Burton Wetlands - Burton
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www.geaugaparkdistrict.org • VOICES OF NATURE 3