Volume 1, Issue 7
May/June
2006
Euclid Creek
Watershed Council
City of Beachwood
City of Cleveland
City of Euclid
City of Highland Heights
City of Lyndhurst
City of Mayfield Heights
Village of Mayfield
City of Richmond Heights
City of South Euclid
Upcoming
Meetings & Events
Friends of Euclid Creek
Monthly meeting, 1st Tuesday, South Euclid Community
Center, 7pm.
Volunteer Monitoring Training
May 11, 6-8pm & May 13
10am-12 noon, Cleveland
Metroparks, Euclid Reservation,
Highland Picnic Area
Euclid Creek Watershed
Council Meeting
May 18, 7:30 am
South Euclid Community
Center
Public Involvement & Education
Committee, June 2, 9:00am
Richmond Heights City Hall.
Friends of Euclid Creek Field
Trip to West & Mill Creek,
July 8
Euclid Creek
Watershed Update
Euclid Creek Partners:
Euclid Creek Watershed Council, Friends of Euclid Creek &
Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District
Lower Euclid Creek Greenway Progress Report
What additional value can Euclid
Creek provide to its communities? What if you could increase
recreational fishing opportunities? What if you could increase
property values of homes? What
if you could increase protected
greenspace for residents to enjoy as an amenity of living in the
watershed? These are the questions being asked as a Greenway plan is being developed for
the Lower Euclid Creek from the
Euclid Creek Metroparks
Reservation and Wildwood State
Park. Two public meetings were
held in April and May to introduce
residents to the project and ask
for input through participation.
Over 60 people attended meetings
and provided great input for the
project. The planning portion of
the project will be completed by
the end of the summer and a strategy for
implementation
based upon .
Draft concept plans for both the
recreation and creek improvements can be viewed on the Cuyahoga SWCD website at
www.cuyahogaswcd.org then click
Euclid Creek. Please provide comments or questions to the Watershed Coordinator.
Euclid Creek Day—September 16
Activities include hiking with a naturalist, fish demonstration, water monitoring and a
scavenger hunt. Stay tuned for a full schedule of activities in the next newsletter.
Volunteer Water Monitoring Starts Now!
Volunteers needed
The last couple of newsletters
have talked about a volunteer
monitoring project starting up in
Euclid Creek. Well, the time has
come and is about to begin. We
are recruiting volunteers to help
us monitor Euclid Creek on a
monthly basis, so we can begin
to establish more frequent data
on the conditions in Euclid
Creek. Initial trainings for volunteers are being offered on May
11 and May 13 for folks who
can sign up and collect data at
specific sites in the watershed.
A Volunteer Monitoring Committee has been working on assembling this initial program and has
identified five sites to monitor
on a monthly basis. The training, in partnership with Ohio
EPA, will walk folks through the
worksheet to collect data, how
to use the equipment, and
where to send the data. Please
sign up for as few or as many
months that you can help out in
collecting data for Euclid Creek.
Page 2
Public Involvement/Outreach
Local Schools Heading to
Euclid Creek
From the Friends : Update
Join Friends of Euclid Creek
FOEC is planning a field trip to
the West Creek and Mill Creek
watershed’s, Saturday, July
8th. Details will be announced
soon.
Thanks who attended at our
first Fish Fry at Our Lady of
Lourdes Shrine on April 7th.
Special thanks to Dr. Roy Larick
for his entertaining lecture.
Join FOEC Today!
The Friends of Euclid Creek help inform and educate the public on the
many things happening in the watershed. Be part of its future by joining
and supporting FOEC. New member
ship dues, $15, Student or Senior,
$10 and Donor $50.
To become a member contact:
Larry McFadden
18310 Marcella Road, Cleveland OH
44119
—or Log on to FOEC’s website at:
www.friendsofeuclidcreek.org
Euclid Creek
It’s a great time to get students out to explore
Euclid Creek and use it as an outdoor classroom. May schools will be out in the Creek in
the coming weeks to do activities such as introduction to watersheds, water monitoring, storm
drain stenciling, invasive plant removal and
beach clean-ups. Schools participating include:
•
Jane Addams Cleveland City School
•
Collinwood Cleveland City School
•
Jewish Day School
•
Hawken Middle School
•
TriTri-C Eastern Campus
What does your school want to do in Euclid
Creek?
Friends of Euclid Creek Receives Grant -
Naming Streams in your
Euclid Creek Signs
community— The USGS process
Friends of Euclid Creek, with assistance from Cuyahoga SWCD, was
awarded a $5,000 grant from Ohio
EPA’s Environmental Education
Fund to develop a design and place
some initial signs on roadways in
the watershed to recognize the
boundaries of the Euclid Creek
Watershed. The project will be similar to watershed signage project in
Lake and Medina Counties. A
design team will be assembled this
summer and will work with the
local communities and county engineer to coordinate placement of
signs. This initial effort will also
launch a sponsorship program with
local businesses for future signs in
the watershed. Congratulations
Friends of Euclid Creek! If you have
design skills or would like to be part
of the design team, please contact
the Friends of Euclid Creek or the
Watershed Coordinator.
Euclid Creek is fortunate to have many remaining small streams that feed into the large
trunks of the creek that travel to Lake Erie.
As important as these smaller streams are to
the watershed, they typically do not have a
name associated with them and tend to be
forgotten as part of the larger watershed system. Naming streams can provide a way to
establish recognition on these very important
networks in the watersheds.
Official naming of streams is conducted
through the USGS to establish a name on official USGS topographic maps. Information and
procedures can be found at
http://geonames.usgs.gov/bgn.html
So put your thinking caps on and get a group
together through your neighborhood, school or
community group to start naming your local
streams in the watershed.
If you would like to start the process of naming
a stream in Euclid Creek, contact the watershed coordinator and we can assist with the
paperwork with USGS.
Volume 1, Issue 7
Watershed Action Plan News
Page 3
Birds in Euclid Creek—Bird Survey
Who says that urban areas can’t provide habitat to our native species? Well now
we know. Anna (Kozlenko) Julnes, a member of Friends of Euclid Creek and the
Kirtland Bird Club, conducted a bird survey in the watershed with assistance from
the Bird Club members. The results of the survey are available on the website link
http://www.geocities.com/Birds_of_Euclid_Creek/
The survey outlines the types of species and where they were found within the
different habitats in Euclid Creek. Including, woodland, successional forest,
wetlands, grasslands and urban areas.
The survey shows that even in Euclid Creek, there are many places for habitat to
live and thrive.
Thanks to Anna and the Bird Club for this great effort and information on our bird
species in the watershed.
Community Stewardship Activities
Our Euclid Creek Watershed Council communities are up and running
on implementation activities to improve Euclid Creek. Here are a few
activities underway.
City of Lyndhurst Pilots Organic Lawn Care
The City of Lyndhurst is initiating an
effort to examine fertilizer application on its facilities to further reduce
pollutant loads in Euclid Creek. The
City will be using a pilot area at
Ridgebury Park to try an organic fertilizer that if successful, could potentially be used for all of the City’s public grounds. This is a great demonstration of municipal stewardship
that will benefit the watershed. One
of the major impairments to the
watershed is phosphorous loads,
which is largely attributed by urban
runoff that includes lawn fertilizer.
Lawn fertilizer overloads the streams
with nutrients that limits natural ecological functions. As fertilizers become
more environmentally friendly and prevent these nutrients to enter into the
stream, the watershed can begin to
recover from urban impacts of the
past. Thanks City of Lyndhurst!
City of Euclid’s Long Term CSO Control Plan
A disadvantage to an older city is the
aging of its infrastructure to support
and provide water quality services to
its waterways.
The City of Euclid is embarking on its
Long Term CSO Control Plan for the
City which will greatly benefit Euclid
Creek and other tributaries entering
Lake Erie to update it infrastructure.
The Plans outline improvements
made in the 1990’s and additional
improvements to capture or treat 93%
of Combined Sewer flow. The plan
outlines locations of infrastructure improvements and a coordinated effort
on beach monitoring. These plans are
currently being reviewed by USEPA
Euclid Creek has one CSO within the
Euclid system, but they do not contribute a high amount of CSS flow to
Lake Erie Watershed Corner :
Did you know?
Sizing up Lake Erie Tributaries
Although Euclid Creek may be small,
it is part of a much larger system in
Ohio of Lake Erie tributaries. We all
know the “big” rivers. But if you put
all of the little watersheds together in
between the big rivers within Ohio’s
Lake Erie coastline, the land area is
close to 1,100 square miles. Almost
as big as the Sandusky River, one of
the largest in the basin at 1,800
square miles. So together the little
tribs do make a difference to Lake
Erie. One may seem irrelevant, but
together they will make a difference.
So let’s not forget the value of the
little guys.
but they do not contribute a high amount
of CSS flow to Euclid Creek. The improvement scheduled for 2009 will improve
capture to 98% of CSS flow and send it
to the treatment plant. The City of Euclid
is on its way to making our creek and
lake cleaner!
Euclid Creek Partners:
Euclid Creek Watershed Council, Friends of Euclid Creek &
Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District
Euclid Creek Watershed Coordinator
Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District
6100 West Canal Road
Valley View, Ohio 44125
Phone: 216-524-6580, Ext 16
Fax: 216-524-6584
Email: [email protected]
We’re on the web: www.cuyahogaswcd.org
Then click Euclid Creek!
Only Rain
down the
Drain
Euclid Creek Places: Notre Dame College
The Euclid Creek Watershed and its adjacent watersheds
are blessed with great educational institutions. Notre
Dame College in South Euclid is one of these establishments within the watershed.
Established in 1922 by the Sisters of Notre Dame, Notre
Dame sits on 53 acres and one of the larger property owners in the watershed.
The Biology Department of Notre Dame involving
Dr. Judith Santmire, has been one of the key advisory
members and participants in the Volunteer Monitoring
effort. Dr. Santmire has been taking her students out to
Euclid Creek to look particularly at aquatic insects, known
as macroinvertebrates.
Thanks Notre Dame College and Dr. Santmire of yet
another local partner in the Watershed!
Photo from Notre Dame Website