Some of our West Creek residents

Site 1 - Valley Tavern

In December of 2008, West Creek Preservation Committee, in partnership with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District and Ohio EPA, purchased the Valley Tavern property; accordingly, this is Site 1 of the WRRSP restoration iniative. Not only does this keep with the continuity of the Confluence Project, but it provides enhanced riparian and aquatic habitat, stormwater abatement, as well as Trailhead on the West Creek Greenway, enabling the Scenic Byway Connection up Schaaf Road into Brooklyn Heights.

The site is dominated by the existing taven and associated parking areas, which together comprise many hundreds of square yards of impervious surface. Removal of these features will be the first step in restoration. West Creek at the Valley Tavern site has a watershed area area of approximately 13.6 acres. This property has been heavily modified through straightening and stream bank hardening and is currently entrenched. A 2007 survey of this reach of West Creek by NEORSD produced a Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index Score of 51.5, and this will serve as a pre-restoration baseline.

Restoration Measures Include:

• Raze the existing building and parking areas
• Prepare and amend site soils as necessary to support native plant vegetation
• Stabilize by planting (.4 acres) perennial wildlife seed mix with annual rye as a nurse crop cover
• Clear invasive shrubs from both banks of West Creek
• Draw back 80 linear feet of the over-steep left bank to a 3:1 slope
• While leaving native trees intact, restore a 75-foot wide forested riparian area

Benefits

• Stabilize the eroding banks
• Remove concrete debris
• Pools, riffles, and vanes provide habitat for fish
• Enhanced riparian habitat and bank stability with bioengineering and native plants
• Added vegetation also will help shade the channel
• Potential for stormwater BMPs
• Invasive species removal

Risks and Constraints

• Existing bank instability
• Extremely confined channel corridor
• Liter may collect in the newly established vegetation
• Sewer and water lines parallel the channel

Maintenance

• Remove debris jams
• Replace the dead or inadequately established vegetation within the first year
• Invasive species management

Project Maps & Plans

These maps are large, so download time may take a while - especially for dial-up connections. You will need to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. If you do not already have it, you can download it for free at the Adobe Acrobat website.

West Creek Site 1 FINAL Engineering Plans