Stream work continues at Shaker Lakes amid dam controversies

Stream work

Peter Bode, the center’s president and chief executive officer, says that the much-needed stream work has nothing to do with the lakes’ fate. He started planning it long before last summer, when the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District controversially changed its recommendations from reinforcing Lower Lake’s dam to razing it.

The center’s grounds host the confluence of two branches of the Doan Brook: one from Horseshoe Lake and the other from Green Lake by way of Marshall Lake. The merged waters enter Lower Lake just inside the center’s grounds.

The streams have been rerouted over the years by construction and erosion. Since 1951, Cleveland’s average yearly precipitation has soared by 27 percent and often comes in heavier storms. The swollen branches have washed out some of the center’s slopes and trees. Now they’re starting to threaten a bird-banding station and a parking lot.

So, Bode says, “We’re re-naturalizing.” With buffers of logs and sandstone, crews are restoring the branches’ original routes as much as allowed by roads and the center’s main building, pavilion and other structures. They’re also removing invasive trees and shrubs, planting native ones, removing invasives, adding native species, and restoring and connecting eight acres of wetlands. Bode says the trails will remain in place, better protected than before.

The $495,000 project is being funded by matching grants from the sewer district and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. Construction began Feb. 23 and should end next week, followed by a couple weeks of planting and seeding.

Amy Weinfurtner, an organizer of the Shaker Lakes Conservancy, calls the work “a full-scale clearing of a habitat” that might alter the Shaker Lakes ecosystem. But visitors praise the project.

“I’m all in favor of restoring things,” says Ray Rund.

“What they’ve done so far has been lovely,” says Amy Morgenstern. “They’re proactive about how we’re going to protect nature.”

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