Spring 2001 Issue
Western Wildlife Corridor, Inc. 4739 Delhi Road Cincinnati, Ohio 45238 513/92 1-WILD (9453)
WWC ANNUAL MEETING
FRIDAY, May 4th at 5:30 AT
THE IMAGO EARTH CENTER,
700 ENRIGHT AVE.
We will be walking the additional Earth Center property, which was acquired, by WWC as well as 7 acres at the end of Enright Ave. Everyone is to bring their own picnic dinner. Drinks and dessert will be furnished. Call 921-9453 for directions.
WWC will be participating in the national "Great American Clean-Up Day" on Saturday, April 21st (from 9:00 a.m. to noon) by cleaning up one of our properties located at 1026 Delhi Road, just east of Rosemont Ave. We will be there mid-morning if anyone may be interested in assisting us. (see related story page 3)
Spring has finally sprung, much to the delight of most of us. It is wonderful to see the progression of brown slowly changing to green that is evident primarily in the woods and greenspaces. This renewal of spring, remembrances of all things green, brings to mind our purpose, our mission, to preserve and protect greenspace and hillsides. Mother Nature paints her palette anew each spring.
Message from Jim Schenk, President
This is a very important issue of the Western Wildlife Corridor Newsletter. With this issue we are informing you of a commitment that WWC is making to develop the Durrell Narrows Park along the Ohio River. This is an extremely exciting undertaking, while being a huge one as well it will not take place in a day or a year or even a decade. This is a commitment to a long-range effort however, over the next couple of years we hope to put the mechanism in place to see this effort continuing over the years.
This commitment does not mean that we will not continue to accept land, and work to preserve the rest of the corridor. The Durrell Narrows Park will, however, be a point of concentration that will help provide us with a focus over the next few years. If you know of any land along the corridor that has the potential to be preserved, please let us know. Working to preserve the whole corridor is our commitment and desire.
NARROWS PARK
The late Richard Durrell, a noted Cincinnati geologist and professor, and his wife, Lucile, had proposed the idea for a park to the Greater Cincinnati Tree Council in 1975. The WWC’s great interest in this proposed park, which he termed "Narrows Park", is its location in the Western Wildlife Corridor area, comprising approximately one-third the length of the Corridor.
(It offers a fascinating geological history of the area in addition to its relevance to us). The following excerpt is from the Greater Cincinnati Tree Council Newsletter (February ‘75) and, ultimately, the Western Wildlife Corridor Newsletter (Summer ‘90):
Proposed Narrows Park.
The charm of Cincinnati stems from its location along the Ohio River and its wooded hillsides. The city is just becoming aware of the importance of these two natural features. The Greater Cincinnati Tree Council supports the establishment of a hillside park along the wooded bluffs of the Ohio River beginning at Sedamsville just west of Mt. Echo Park and continuing down stream to Rapid Run. At its eastern end overlooking the Ohio would be Paul Woods Preserve now being created by the Hamilton County Park District (presently known as Embshoff Park). A generous couple has given 100 acres as a nucleus for this bluff and hilltop park.
The Tree Council suggests that a corridor of park land be continued down river along the bluff from Paul Woods Preserve continuing above Riverside and Anderson Ferry to include the wooded promontory just west of the College of Mount St. Joseph. The valley of the Ohio in this section is remarkably narrow, almost gorge-like because of its ice age history. 350,000 years ago the Ohio did not flow here but turned northward through the site of Norwood in a big loop around and north of Cincinnati The lllinoian ice sheet crept slowly out of the north over Lake Erie from Ontario and dammed the Ohio’s northward course. The valley and its tributaries filled with a long, winding lake with many branches; one of these at its headwaters as the water rose higher and higher and finally poured torrentially westward across its divide at Anderson Ferry to erode a new course for all the water of the Ohio system. Thus, today the valley of this new Ohio River here is unusually narrow with steep bluffs. Several of its tributaries, such as the one in Sedamsville meet the river at a peculiar acute angle inherited from that pre-glacial time when their waters flowed in the opposite direction.
The grand idea is to link together greenspaces and form a park along the Corridor. This strip park would include the unstable slope which is actively landsliding along Hillside Avenue and which is unsuitable for development. The park about six miles long would include land both within the county and city. It would afford splendid views over the valley of the Ohio, and a walking trail through the woods would be delightful. The Tree Council urges the preservation of these scenic wooded bluffs with their unique ice age history. Hopefully, Kentucky will save it’s side of the river as suggested a few years ago by a former governor."
WWC PARTNERS WITH LAND TRUSTS
We have joined forces with six other area land trusts and environmental organizations to form a collaborative partnership. The partner groups include Imago, The Hillside Trust, Citizens’ Land Conservancy of Hamilton County, Little Miami, Inc., The Tri-State Environmental Resource Center, and the Millcreek Restoration Project. We realized, with similar missions and goals, if we work together as one group, we can achieve far more than working individually
BOARD MEMBER DONATES LAND
The Western Wildlife Corridor now owns twenty-seven parcels of land. This is a result of one of Board Members, Don Patrick, generously donating nineteen parcels of land to the WWC in December. These parcels are primarily located near Glenway Woods, a park Don helped develop in the mid-seventies. We are actively seeking additional land for both donation and conservation easements. We are currently working with five landowners on other acquisitions.
We Need You on April 21, 2001 for the Great American Clean Up
Several area groups are getting involved on Saturday, April21 in the nationwide effort to clean up our communities. If you can’t help out from 9AM to noon at our property located at 1026 Delhi Road, there will be other clean-ups beginning at 9AM in Price Hill.
East Price Hill residents will meet at the Elberon United Methodist Church, located at the corner of Elberon and Phillips Avenues. West Price Hill residents will meet at Carson Neighborhood School, located at 4323 Glenway. We will divide into groups and assign the groups to different areas of our community Keep Cincinnati Beautiful will supply garbage bags and latex gloves.
If you have any questions please call, for East Price Hill, Jim Flehmer at 251-5850, West Price Hill, Mary Bazeley at 251-1569. This event is sponsored by East Price Hill Improvement Association, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful. Price Hill Civic Club, Santa Maria and Seminary Square Eco-Village.