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Here is a reminder of our success to date on raising money to preserve our Redstone Run property. Thank you to Claire Posius for providing this graphic. Thank you to all who contributed so far. 
Be sure to stop by!
Richmond Heights 5th Annual Family Fun Fest at the Farm
Saturday, September 21 1:00pm-5:00pm
Greenwood Farm, 264 Richmond Road, 44143
Stop by the Euclid Creek table at the event!
SEPTEMBER MEETING FEATURES FOEC MEMBERS
Here is a message from FOEC president Barb Holtz about our upcoming September meeting.
" ... our September meeting will feature short presentations by none other than our members! We could use two to three more folks that are interested in presenting a 5, 10 or 15 minute program around a topic of your choice...a topic that is connected to the health of the watershed, an environmental issue, sustainable living, or related theme.
We would love to hear from YOU!"
If you would like to share your voice with the friendly FOEC crowd, please let jeanette.evans@sbglobal.net know.
Please join us on Tuesday, September 3, at 6:30 pm for our next Friends of Euclid Creek meeting. We will be meeting at South Euclid Community Center.
Our lastest list of presenters include:
1. Bill McReynolds - Geosynthetics in Landfill Construction (5 mins.)
2. Rick Evans - LED Lighting (10 mins.)
3. Cathi Lehn - Detrimental Effects of Outdoor Cats on Wildlife, LEAP Initiative (10 mins.)
4. Christi Carlson - Tree Academy (10 mins.)
5. Brian Gilbert - Plant ID App (10 mins.)
6. Connie Herron - Redstone Run (15 mins.)
We also have much to share about upcoming events at Redstone Run (our newest land holding), Acacia Reservation and Wildwood.
MORE ABOUT OUR LAND CONSERVATION FUND
In 2013, Friends of Euclid Creek established a Land Conservation Fund to aid us in our goal of preserving natural areas in the watershed.
The impetus for creating this fund was our interest in conserving two properties, one in Richmond Heights and one in Highland Heights, both on tributaries to the East Branch of Euclid Creek.
With the help of Clean Ohio grant funding, the West Creek Conservancy, and our Watershed Coordinator, we have successfully acquired the 8.7-acre Redstone Run property in Richmond Heights.
The partial Clean Ohio funding covered the purchase of the property, but did not cover $20,000 inclosing and conservation costs.
To date we have raised nearly half of the funding needed and we are well on our way to reaching our goal, but we still need your donations to succeed.
Minutes of September 3 FOEC meeting Thank you to Frank Skala for providing these meeting minutes. Christi Carlson filled in for Barb Holtz and opened meeting at 6:30. Nametags were used by all attendees. Attendance was 22 people. Claire Posius opened up with updates on the new and improved website, coming soon maybe by end of year. Website will be very complete and easy to use, containing projects partner links, events, pictures, etc. The domain name is Euclid Creek watershed.org. The new newsletter, Euclid Creek watershed update, for summer 2013 was assembled early and distributed at the meeting. There are many upcoming meetings and events listed between September 7 and October 24. See the newsletter. Fliers for the Redstone Run fundraiser on October 4 went out to 200 people. There will be a bio blitz at Acacia reservation. People must register at the Cleveland Metroparks website in order to be a citizen scientist volunteer that day. September 21 is the big day at Wildwood with the restoration celebration, annual CSWCD meeting, many activities. Rick Evans reported as FOEC Treasurer on the conservation fund. There has been $9000 raised to date. Checking account for FOEC has been moved from PNC to Huntington. Christi Carlson covered board and committee structure, passed out outlines of needed committee functions and needed volunteers for these roles. She stated we need many more hands on deck to take on operation rolls for FOEC to function well.
The committees needing to be staffed are board development, communication, finance and development, programs, membership, volunteers, special projects. Sheets were circulated for people to sign up.
Bill McReynolds spoke on the status of the Euclid Creek tunnel. They were lifting out the massive tunneling machine this week. The main tunnel is complete. There are still connector side tunnels to be completed. He also spoke on the topic of synthetic polyethylene materials for lining ponds and landfills. He passed out sample materials of liners and examples of liner weldings. Rick Evans gave an update on LED lighting versus other forms of lighting, namely incandescent lights. The pros of LED lighting are low environmental impact. Cost has dropped 50% in last year. Doesn't produce much heat. Can last 60,000 hours if installation and operated properly. The cons are: some LEDs fail, especially in early life. More complex than incandescent. Don't work well with dimmers. Non-name brands are unlikely to be well tested. Cathi Lehn spoke on LEAP, Lake Erie Allegheny partnership and wildlife conflict committee. The mission of LEAP is to preserve diversity. She also spoke on the issues of feral cats and domestic cats that are released outdoors. These cats kill billions of birds, plus reptiles, mice, etc. and impact biodiversity negatively. The life of a feral cat may be three years whereas a domestic cat kept indoors may live 19 to 22 years. She referred to the EUCLID beach Feral cat Study. Brian Gilbert spoke on his plant identification smart phone application. He has identified 530 plants so far in Euclid Creek reservation. he passed out a prototype field guide of his smart phone app. He supplied a draft of his business card to Christy for review. Brian has entered into an agreement with FOEC for purpose of taking in fundraising money and contributions and being able to provide tax deduction status to these funds. He stated that the Green Info company, software developers, are saying the application is ready to code, But it will require $6000-$9000. These are the same developers that helped Metroparks to put together a new trail mapping system. He stated that he could use help in getting letters of support, identifying plants – people can come help him identify plants any day between 9 AM and 10 AM in Euclid Creek reservation. Find him in the park by looking for his Smart car. He can also use help by people telling him newsletters that he can post his announcements and requests for help. He appreciates any contributions, even the smallest, even one dollar helps build the list of contributors. He mentioned that Cleveland Metroparks is assembling a herbarium, to identify and display plant specimens, to help residents identify plants. Connie Herron spoke on the Redstone run property acquisition. She spoke of the 8.8 acres in Richmond heights near Highland Road and Hillcrest was about to be cleared of trees and put up for sale to developers. She enlisted key people, took pictures, researched lots on Zillow, got pro bono survey of trees and build helped build campaign to get Grant to acquire property and put it into conservation. There were 125 salable trees that were targeted for calling. She thanks all that helped! The slideshow didn't play, but will be running continuously at the October 4 fundraiser event. Ginny Aveni, in charge of the nominations committee, spoke to her search for people for the FOEC board. These people would be expected to come to most board meetings, help guide things they want done, make decisions, make some financial contributions. The clean Ohio fund will have $3.4 million of new money coming up for grant distribution next year. There are three board positions open. If Ginny does not have any volunteers coming forward, and nobody did at the meeting, she will be making calls directly to members to develop the nomination list. THANK YOU FOR VISITING
As of September 1, 2013, we got over 15,700 views on this blog.
Thanks for visiting. The photo comes from Daniel Hancock, a winner in our last photo contest.  |
