The momentum behind the Stearns Farm Stream Restoration Project ultimately stems from the environmental movement related to the Cuyahoga River. The long road to recovery on the Cuyahoga River started with the infamous fire of 1969. This event acted as a catalyst for a number of environmental actions, including the identification of the Lower Cuyahoga River, and many of its tributaries, as one of 43 Areas of Concern on the Great Lakes. Subsequently, Remedial Action Plans (RAPs) were formed to address pollution problems on all of the Areas of Concern, including the Cuyahoga River. The Cuyahoga River RAP was developed as a community driven effort to promote the renovation and preservation of the Cuyahoga River. In 1998, the Cuyahoga River recieved greater attention when it was federally designated as an American Heritage River.

The Cuyahoga AHR/RAP was instrumental in building the partnership and coordinating restoration project. The project is located in the Big Creek Watershed, which is a heavily urbanized, degraded tributary to the Cuyahoga River. 

Strearns Farm is a 48 acre historical farm that sits in the middle of theCity of Parma, the seventh largest city in Ohio.  Just off of a heavily developed road corridor, you will find the only remaining remnant of the city’s farming history. This property is an isolated green space of woodlands, meadows and streams, which has endured decades of surrounding urban activities. Upstream development and historical farming practices negatively impacted the health of the stream, causing sever erosion of the stream channel and allowing invasive species to flourish.

The project partners help to restore the urban stream and engage the local community by:

• Restoring the stream channel and riparian area to more natural (pre-development) conditions,
• Utilizing the project site as a science and educational land laboratory for students, local officials and the community.

The project helped restore 1,100 feet of stream channel and approximately 2 acres of floodplain and streamside vegetation. The stream channel was reshaped to include new features, such as, an accessable floodplain to store storm water; a more meandering, or S-shaped, channel to hold more water; and a corridor of native trees, shrubs and grasses to improve stream and terrestrial habitat.

A stream restoration booklet is being produced. The partnership documented the process involved in completing the stream restoration project. Highlighting the steps that a project must follow as it moves from conceptualization to reality, it will be featured as a subject in the Cuyahoga American Heritage River Guide to Watershed Stewardship brochure series. Key steps include: Gathering Community and Financial Support, Detail Design Development, Permits and Approvals, On-site Logistics Management and Ongoing Site Management as the project matures into a stable system.

The process will also be highly instructive for understanding how to sustain a project, while coping with aggressive deer populations, the vagaries of NE Ohio weather, and unrelated political storms.

Through this project, partnerships have grown and strengthened, which will help foster similar watershed stewardship efforts in the future.