Cleveland Metroparks Announces West Creek Reservation Expansion

CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OH — Recent land acquisitions have added more than 52 acres of preserved land to Cleveland Metroparks West Creek Reservation, including parkland in several communities including Seven Hills for the first time in the park district’s 103-year history, officials announced this week.

With the new acreage additions to the West Creek Reservation,Cleveland Metroparks has grown by more than 12 percent over the past 10 years and now protects more than 24,000 acres in 49 different communities.

Park district officials said that the new land acquisition now includes the protection of forests and streams northwest and southeast of the existing West Creek Reservation, which serves Seven Hills, Independence and Parma. Officials said that the new park land also lays the groundwork for future trail connections from West Creek Reservation to the new Hemlock Trail in Independence and the regional Towpath Trail, which will soon connect to downtown Cleveland, officials said in a news release.

“West Creek Reservation is one of our fastest growing reservations and we’re thrilled to add land in the City of Seven Hills to our Emerald Necklace,” Cleveland Metroparks CEO Brian M. Zimmerman said in the release. “These new protections conserve valuable forests and streams, provide more public access to greenspace, and lay the groundwork for future trail connections, both locally, as well as regionally to our growing trail network across Northeast Ohio.”

Because of strong working relationships with city leaders in places like Parma, who have partnered with Cleveland Metroparks and the West Creek Reservation, the reservation has grown by nearly one-third, officials said.

In 2020 alone, the Metroparks added significant acreage to several park areas in addition to the West Creek Reservation, officials said. Those projects included adding more than 87 acres to the Bedford Reservation, almost 25 acres to the Hinkley Reservation, nearly 75 acres to the Brecksville Reservation and almost 25 acres to the Mill Stream Run Reservation.

"Connecting people to nature and places, while protecting our land and water resources is what the West Creek Greenway was originally envisioned to do and a dynamic park and trail system is only made possible through strong partnerships and community support," Derek Schafer, executive director of West Creek Conservancy said in the release. "Urban watersheds, such as West Creek, require unique tactics associated with land conservation, habitat restoration, and in many cases reclaiming unsustainably developed lands, puzzling back together otherwise fragmented greenspace."