171-acre property on Old Forge Road in Rootstown to become new park
The Portage Park District recently took ownership of a 171-acre property on Old Forge Road in Rootstown that will be known as the Bird Family Bog Park and Preserve.
In addition to a 23-acre bog, the property includes about 40 acres of high-quality wetland, 3,000 feet of stream, about 60 acres of forest and a 3-acre fishing pond. Restoration through invasive species management, reforestation and meadow restoration has already begun.
Preliminary park plans call for about two miles of hiking trails, restrooms, and other low-impact amenities, though development is a few years away. The property will remain a preserve during the restoration and planning process and will not be open to the public, although the park district offers staff-guided “preserve peeks” several times a year to allow the public to tour unopened properties.
The project was initiated in July 2020 when the real estate listing for a property with a known important bog was discovered.
“Knowing that time was of the essence and the park district couldn’t act as quickly, I contacted Joe Leslie, the director of real estate for West Creek Conservancy on a Sunday and he worked to proceed with the deal,” said Christine Craycroft, executive director of the park district. “The owner was excited about the potential to leave a legacy by conserving the land they had loved for years.”
West Creek Conservancy is a non-profit land conservation organization that works to protect land for conservation and recreation.
“I am very excited to see the Bird Family Bog property become part of the many wonderful parks and preserves. It has been a pleasure working with the park district to acquire this important property,” Leslie said.
The project was made possible with funding from the Clean Ohio Greenspace Conservation Fund; H2Ohio, a state water protection fund; Portage Park District Foundation; and in-kind staff support from the park district and WCC. The park district’s financial contribution was $50,000 for costs not covered by grants. Additional support came from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy and the Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves Association.
The bog had been referenced by biologists in scholarly articles over the decades because of its rarity (only 2% of Ohio’s original peatlands remain, concentrated in Northeast Ohio) and the only known occurrence in Ohio of an endangered bog plant. Conservation of the land not only preserves important habitats it reduces the potential for flooding and protects water quality in the Breakneck Creek Watershed, source water for residents and the cities of Kent and Ravenna. The property is adjacent to other preserved property and was also identified in the Park District’s Master Plan analysis as being in an area of high park need.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Property on Old Forge Road in Rootstown to become newest Portage park
