Cleveland Metroparks (1/21-22/2017)

Saturday, January 21, 2017
Winter warm days are becoming more common; today the temperature reached 60 degrees F.  We returned to Acacia Reservation in Lyndhurst, OH to walk the dog.  This was a golf course that is being allowed to return to nature.  Apparently it needs help to do this: golf courses were designed so that rain water drained away from the course, and now there are bulldozers re-arranging the land to allow rain water to remain on the former course.

Saplings are protected from deer so that they can grow to full size,
in a program called "tree recruitment"

Overview of Acacia Reservation

The former green lies beyond a former sand trap

A former golf shelter

A lake that is stocked with largemouth bass for fishing

Signs in Acacia Reservation indicated that you should throw unused bait worms into the trash can, and not on the ground, as they are an invasive species.  North America was once earthworm free, but worms were brought by Europeans, mainly through horticulture trade (in the dirt of plants) in the 18th century.  The worms did help recently cut forests develop soil for farming, but they didn't stay on the farms.  In the forest, worms decrease the nutrients in the soil and many forest plants do not survive.

The huge new homes in Acacia Estates next to the park

Birdbath and birdhouse in
Sticks! painted furniture style

Solanum carolinense/Horsenettle fruit

The former clubhouse is now a facility owned by Dino's Catering

Sunday, January 22, 2017
Washington Reservation opened in 2003 when Cleveland Metroparks took over Washington Park in Newburgh Heights. It is the smallest Metropark at 59 acres. An existing horticulture educational center (part of the Cleveland Municipal School District) was allowed to remain and a 9-hole/par 29 golf course was built in 2006, with its own learning center.

Probably Sciurus carolinensis/Eastern Gray Squirrel (KSS)

Washington Reservation Arboretum, "newly renovated,"
serves the horticulture education center and attracts wildlife

Putting practice green at the Washington Golf Course

Washington Golf Course is designated as an Audubon International Certified Gold Signature Sanctuary.  It also has a driving range.

Greenhouses in the background

Battleship Maine Memorial (dedicated 1913,
moved here in 1948); the relics include a section
of the conning tower and a porthole cover from
the ship that suffered an explosion in 1898
in the harbor of Havana, Cuba

Washington Park Community School shared space with the Village Hall,
which has now moved into a brand new building on Harvard Avenue

The "rushing river" of Interstate-77 that we could hear below
as we walked along Washington Park Boulevard

American Legion Memorial