Fairmount Minerals gives shrubs, volunteer time for substantial planting
With the partnership of Fairmount Minerals, is furthering its mission to reforest Orchard Hills Park in Chesterland – donating 5,000 native shrubs to plant there on Friday, May 16.
The event is Fairmount Minerals’ ongoing effort to assist community restoration and offset disturbances caused by its mining operations elsewhere, said Joel Firem, Park District land steward. As many as 20 Fairmount employees will join Park District staff for the substantial planning, slated to begin about 8 a.m. in some of the fairways of the former golf course, now a park at 11340 Caves Road.
Species will include smooth sumac, black gum, silky dogwood, white flowering dogwood, American scarlet elder and gray dogwood.
“The plantings will be located to the northwest of the park’s common areas and create a beneficial transitional habitat zone,” Joel said. “This important donation accelerates by several years the Park District’s goal of restoring the land to a more natural state. Many wildlife species will benefit from the planting of this shrub habitat.”
The standing goal at Orchard Hills Park, managed as a golf course until 2007, has been to reforest one fairway a year for at least 10 years. Work on the park’s fifth fairway is expected in late fall or next spring, said Park Biologist Paul Pira.
During the park’s initial development in 2009, several areas underwent habitat restoration funded in part through a grant from Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the provisions of Section 319(h) of the Clean Water Act.
