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Residents enjoy natural setting of Poland Forest
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Bob Zedaker, chairman of the Poland Municipal Forest board, stands inside a hollowed out sycamore tree in Poland’s Municipal Forest last week. Zedaker’s grandfather helped build a pavilion near the forest’s College Street entrance.
Locals walk and jog along the forests trails in the 265-acre park.
BY RICK ROUAN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
Tucked just to the southeast of the Interstate 680-U.S. Route 224 intersection in Poland is a local treasure trove of history, plants and wildlife.
The Poland Municipal Forest also isn’t a bad place to take a walk.
“We all think it’s spiritual,” said Vicki Karam, a Poland resident. “So many of us come here and feel it.”
Karam was walking with her two daughters, Taylor, 21, and Ally, 18, beneath the canopy of a 265-acre forest beset with creeks and trails for the public to enjoy.
Technically, the forest is in Boardman Township, but the village of Poland actually owns it. When problems arise, Poland police respond. But the forest does inherit some Boardman problems, notably with flooding that moves south from the plaza on South Avenue into the forest’s creeks, said Bob Zedaker, forest board chairman.
The forest is run by a six-member board, which allots a $1,000 annual budget for upkeep. It has a separate Forest Foundation that can help when extra money is needed, but the forest board relies mostly on volunteers.
Older men patrol the trails to help keep them clear, and high-school students help with a spring cleanup to keep the park clean, Zedaker said.
One big part of keeping the forest user-friendly is the help of local Boy Scout troops, Zedaker said. Troops have built kiosks to hold maps and post rules, wooden-plank trails and pavilions.
Zedaker has a distinct connection to the forest. His grandfather helped build a pavilion just inside the College Street entrance, and his son built a gateway to the Blue Bell Trail when he was an Eagle Scout. A concrete outhouse that Zedaker built himself still sits in the same area, though it goes largely unused.
“We have busloads of people from Cleveland and Pittsburgh just to see the bluebells,” he said, adding that the flowers bloom in the first few weeks of May.
But Tuesday, no busloads pulled into the forest’s entrance. Boardman and Poland residents walked and jogged along the forests trails, dodging the occasional tree root and poison ivy.
“It’s a nice, cool place to run,” Zedaker said. “The high-school kids like to run here. You have to kind of outrun the mosquitoes.”
When forestgoers aren’t running along the trails, they’re admiring the wildlife the forest offers.
“The nature is so beautiful,” Ally Karam said.
Zedaker said the forest has deer, some coyotes and the occasional bear passes through. It features towering, 300-year-old sycamore trees and its famous collection of bluebells. The forest is overrun with more greenery than people.
“You can go on some trails and not see anybody for a few hours,” Ally Karam said.
For Adam Berry, a Boardman resident, the draw of the forest lies in the characteristics that distinguish it from other local parks.
“Something about this forest I really like,” said Berry, 24. “You play Frisbee at Mill Creek Park. You walk in silence here.”
rrouan@vindy.com