A country park - American style

In my recent post about Haysden Country Park, I extolled the virtues of this local amenity and the opportunities it affords to all those who appreciates the great outdoors. With a setting which mixes re-claimed gravel pits, areas of woodland plus the chance to stroll along the banks of Kent’s largest river - the River Medway, local residents are indeed fortunate to have such a wonderful place virtually on their doorsteps.

The country park is also a haven for wildlife, especially birds such as Canada Geese and other avian species who feed on open water. The lake is popular with anglers, but with hard surfaced paths around the circumference and a section which forms part of the National Cycle Path network, the area is also popular with cyclists and walkers.

Tonbridge, or indeed the UK is not alone in enjoying such facilities, as the small town of Amherst in north-west Ohio, where my sister and her family live, has its own wild life recreation area, in the form of the Amherst Beaver Creek Reservation. Although one of the smallest metro park, the reservation has a surprising variety of both natural habitats and activities.

Amherst Beaver Creek Reservation is spread over a 65 acre area of mixed mature woodlands, parkland and a floodplain, and features a 1.4 mile paved trail, which starts high along a ravine which overlooks Beaver Creek before gradually descending to the water's edge. Farther along the trail ascends to a large grove of pine trees that rise like spires into the sky. On the way back the path crosses the creek again at a second scenic bridge, before heading back to the main car-park and visitor centre.

Since the retreat of the last glaciers, around 10,000 years ago, the Beaver Creek has carved this area into a diverse range of uplands, rolling hills and 30 foot cliffs. Hardwoods are typical of this region of Ohio, and include a variety of oaks, maples and ash. Spring wildflowers grow abundantly throughout the area , and aquatic life is plentiful as well, with fish, frogs, turtles, crayfish and insect nymphs found along the creek bed.

On five of the six days I spent at my sisters, I accompanied my brother-in-law on a circular walk, from their house to  the Beaver Creek Reservation and back. Our walk included a circuit of the reservation itself. I clocked the mileage using an App on my phone, (Map My Walk), and found that we covered a total of three and a half miles each morning, which wasn’t bad going, given the heat and humidity of mid-August in that part of the USA.

In order to reach the reservation our walk took us through the leafy streets on the edge of Amherst, in scenes which are typical of small town America. We passed dozens of weatherboard houses, constructed in a variety of different styles, and looking out over lawns which are bounded by quiet roads.  On the way back we skirted the local high school where, until fairly recently, my nephew was a pupil.

On my first visit to my sister’s, some 10 years previously, my brother-in-law and I had taken a similar route, but back then we had the family dog, Ozzy the Dalmatian, for company. Ozzy has sadly gone to that great kennel in the sky, but humans need regular exercise as well as dogs, so these morning walks were a chance to get out in the fresh air, before the temperatures climbed too high, and also afforded time to chat.

We didn’t put the world to right, as there are just too many wrong things happening at the moment, in both our countries, but we were able to discuss common issues affecting our respective work places and also interesting happenings in local politics.

Beaver Creek, is a good example of local cooperation getting things right, as the Reservation has the distinction of being the first joint effort between a city and a metro park in the state of Ohio. The City of Amherst maintains the park and the visitor's centre while Lorain County Metro Parks manages the park's Natural Resource Management Program.

The Metro Parks and City of Amherst contributed two-thirds of the 1.8 million dollars necessary to make the park a reality, with the remainder coming from private donations. This three-way effort enabled the project to open its gates to the public on 1st July 2001.