Our Mission: Restore & Preserve

The mission of the Friends of Lower Lake is to restore and preserve native plants and wildlife at Lower Lake Park and the surrounding Doan Brook Watershed.

Meet with the Community

We convene, educate, inspire, and collaborate with our community in the shared belief that all benefit from an ecologically healthy native habitat in our cities. We honor the past and improve the present while creating a better future for our community in balance with nature.

Regular Work Sessions

We work Sunday mornings 10am to noon, weather permitting, to:

• Remove invasive species
• Plant native species
• Maintain pathways and manage water drainage
• Create prototype native plant gardens

Friends of Lower Lake also

• Collaborates with local nonprofits, governments, and regulatory agencies
• Presents free educational talks by local experts
• Participates in meetings held by partnering stakeholders
• Disseminates information via newsletters, Facebook, articles, and conservations
• Raises funds through grants and individuals for the program

For information about volunteering please email friendsoflowerlake@gmail.com

Online Historical Resources

Cleveland Plain Dealer Articles 1907 – 1976

Historic Maps 1894 – 1940

How We Got Here

An Accidental Discovery

Although our intention is habitat restoration, we inadvertently discovered rich history simply by starting to remove invasive plant species.

History of Lower Lake

Early Beginnings from 1830

Lower Lake Park is within a 10-minute walk from 3 cities in Ohio: Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, and Shaker Heights. Today the park is much appreciated as a rare natural area imbedded in residential neighborhoods built primarily in the 1920s.

Pre-European settlement the site was heavily forested. Lower Lake and Horseshoe Lake upstream were formed when the Shakers dammed Doan Brook in the late 1830’s, deforested the land for farmland, and built lumber and flour mills.

Later when the cities were being developed, two additional lakes were created. The lakes and parklands were often marketed to potential homeowners as an asset, and still are.

Changing Ownership in the 1940’s

The Park lies within the historic Shaker Parklands that span the Doan Brook watershed in Cleveland, Ohio. The Shaker Parklands are listed on the National Register of Historic places. In 1940 they comprised 296 wooded acres, representing Cleveland’s largest passive recreation park. Still owned by the city of Cleveland, Lower Lake Park has been leased to Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights since the late 1940’s. Lower Lake Park’s 44 public acres are immediately adjacent to 20 acres under the stewardship of the nonprofit Nature Center at Shaker Lakes.

The Parklands are designated an Audubon Important Bird Area, a stopover for migratory birds that is a global phenomenon and birding destination right here in our own backyard. Residents are there every day of the year to walk, run, bird, and botanize.

The Parklands are designated an Audubon Important Bird Area, a stopover for migratory birds that is a global phenomenon and birding destination right here in our own backyard. Residents are there every day of the year to walk, run, bird, and botanize.

How We Got Involved in 2017

We first became actively involved with this park in our own neighborhood when we volunteered at Doan Brook Watershed Partnership’s 2017 National Public Lands Day to remove invasive plants at Lower Lake Park. After removing porcelain berry for several hours, and hitting a base of concrete (more about that later), we realized that our one-day effort was more symbolic than effective. The porcelain berry started growing back even as we drove away.

We, and others, offered to work on a regular basis to effect significant change in the habitat. The Partnership convened interested volunteers to create Friends of Lower Lake in May 2018 and we’ve been working most Sunday mornings ever since.  We’ve reintroduced over 50 species of native plants while working to reduce the population of over 25 invasive species.

The concrete that we hit ended up being the foundation of the Shaker Lakes Canoe Club (view photos of vintage Lower Lake postcards) that had been filling with soil and plants since it was torn down in 1976. Founded in 1907, the Canoe Club provided recreational activities for almost 70 years, including regattas watched by thousands of spectators lining the grassy banks of Lower Lake.

What We are Doing

Since May 2018, a group of self-selected volunteers has been removing invasive plant species and replacing them with plants native to Northeast Ohio.

Timeline

May 20, 2018

Little did we know what was underneath these invasive plant species…

July 28, 2018

As we removed the silt we discovered…

August 19, 2018

…the foundation of the Canoe Club 1907-1976!

June 27, 2020

We’re continuing to improve the habitat of our local park by removing invasive plant species and planting those native to NE Ohio.

View our Photo Albums

View Photos from 2018

View Photos from 2019

View Photos from 2020

We are all volunteers. Join us!

For information about volunteering please email friendsoflowerlake@gmail.com

Follow us on Facebook!

Where We Meet

We convene at the Canoe Club site on South Park Boulevard in Shaker Heights, Ohio. (Lower Lake Park spans both Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights.)

We usually meet on Sunday mornings at 10.

Some of our experienced volunteers have special projects that they do on their own time. If you would like an assignment, let’s talk. If everyone takes care of a small piece of nature… you know the rest.

Contact us at FriendsofLowerLake@gmail.com

What To Bring

• Print and sign a waiver to bring (if you haven’t already).
• A water bottle.
• Your own tools like pruners, a garden knife or a weeder. Shovels and rakes are helpful too.
• Please wear work gloves, long sleeves and pants to avoid contact with poison ivy.

Additional Info

We’ve added native trees to the existing canopy. Our volunteers, who are creating healthy habitats in our own yards, have donated native plants. We’re planting locally grown native understory trees, shrubs for thickets, and a diverse mix of ferns, sedges, grasses, and wildflowers.

The canoe club was situated at one of the best vistas around the lake, and clearing it has created a place for hikers to rest, people to meet, take photographs, and practice tai chi.

We are not experts, but we have learned a lot. Our regular volunteers from four cities (and four countries!) include a Cleveland Orchestra violinist, a physician, an urban planner, a physical therapist, a nurse, an accountant, retirees, and an art teacher, among others. We are all learning together, and creating the world that we want to live in.