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Fellows gardens canopy walk to give treetop view of Mill Creek
YOUNGSTOWN
Visitors to Mill Creek MetroParks soon will be able to experience nature’s beauty on a whole new level.
Fellows Riverside Gardens will add a canopy quarry walk — an elevated structure that will provide visitors a view from among the treetops — sometime next year.
“Visitors will get the feeling that they’re in the treetops,” said Keith Kaiser, Mill Creek MetroParks horticulture director.
“Visually, it’ll be interesting to look at,” Kaiser said. “It will have a sense of drama because it’ll be built up 25 to 30 feet high.”
The walkway will be a Y-shaped steel and stone structure with two viewing platforms, one facing the stone quarry to the north and one facing Mill Creek and Lake Glacier to the south. It will have railings as well as interpretive panels that explain elements of the natural surroundings.
It will be constructed in the Ohio Woodland Garden, which sits on the eastern edge above the bluffs that border Price Road and Mill Creek.
The canopy walk is the final piece of the Ohio Woodland Garden, most of which was completed in 2012 at a cost of about $350,000.
The woodland garden is meant to showcase woodland plants that are native to Northeast Ohio, Kaiser said. It features native plants such as eastern hemlocks, oaks and black cherry trees, as well as a stone gathering area, benches, mulch pathways and the stone quarry.
“Very quickly you feel the difference” when you step into the woodland garden, Kaiser said.
The area is less cultivated than the rest of the gardens, which he said fits with its purpose.
“Fellows Riverside Gardens is [about] connecting people with plants, and everything we do should follow that vision,” he said. “We exist because we want people to learn the value of plants in their lives.”
Brick pathways also will be extended into the Ohio Woodland Garden, up to the entrance of the canopy walk. Kaiser also envisions adding a stone archway at the entrance to the canopy walk.
One reason for the pathway extension is that the administration wants the canopy walk to meet Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility standards so everyone can enjoy the experience.
“If you’ve never been able to climb a tree, we want to accommodate you,” Kaiser said.
The estimated cost of the canopy walk is just under $260,000. So far, about $100,000 in in-kind donations have been pledged, leaving about $160,000 to raise, Kaiser said.
The project will be led by the Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens, in partnership with Mill Creek MetroParks and the Mill Creek MetroParks Foundation.
This winter, an architect will design the walk, with construction slated to take place sometime next year.
Though the canopy tree walk will highlight the Gardens’ wildlife, Kaiser said the people who come to experience it are what really matter.
“We’re all about the public. We want them to come see us,” he said. “By having something like this, it’ll bring people to the gardens.”