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Mill Creek MetroParks expands with 2 new acquisitions
YOUNGSTOWN
Six acres may not seem like a lot, but Justin Rogers, planning manager for Mill Creek MetroParks, says two newly acquired properties that are adjacent to the park will make a meaningful contribution to the park’s perpetual preservation effort.
“Three acres here, three acres there doesn’t seem like a lot, but in the city, in the urban core, when we get those opportunities [to acquire property], we take them,” Rogers said.
The park system recently acquired the two vacant parcels — one on Bear’s Den Road, the other at Glenwood Avenue and Devonshire Drive — using grant funds administered by the Ohio Public Works Commission from a state program that promotes conservation of green spaces.
“We probably have preserved over 700 acres over the last 15 years using Clean Ohio [funds],” Rogers said.
The park has steadily acquired chunks of property since it was founded more than 120 years ago on a few hundred acres. Today, the park encompasses thousands of acres.
The two biggest acquisitions through the Clean Ohio program are the Mill Creek Preserve and the Mill Creek Wildlife Sanctuary. The sanctuary, established in 2005 on 264 acres, hosts a diverse wildlife population. The Mill Creek Preserve consists of more than 300 acres of upland and wetland habitats. The park has a number of other preserves acquired through other means.
For this project, set to begin in the spring, the park got 75 percent of the total $67,700 cost to acquire and restore the spaces, plus several thousands of dollars in private donations.
The goal is to allow the two spaces to naturalize.
“Eventually it will look like the rest of Mill Creek Park — and that’s our intent,” Rogers said.
“We will be planting native plant species — trees, shrubs and some grasses and wildflowers. And then we’ll do some invasive species treatment,” he said. Any maintenance to the spaces will be to encourage the growth of native plants. The park cannot maintain it for recreational use or develop it.
The maintenance aspect of the project has caused concern among some residents of the Bear’s Den neighborhood in which the one parcel is located. Neighbors spoke up at several park board meetings to protest the project and have had private discussions with park staff. Neighbors say they do not want the property to be left unkept and unmaintained.
Rogers, however, said he thinks the restoration project will be a positive thing for the surrounding community.