As part of its mission of conservation and preservation, Cleveland Metroparks should be a leader in promoting sustainability. Documenting and then decreasing utility and fuel use, cutting back on herbicides and pesticides, recycling beyond paper goods or state mandates - showing the way to greener lifestyles. Except for water conservation at the zoo and the purchase of a few hybrid SUVs (while still maintaining a huge stable of on and off road vehicles) there has been little effort to change.
One of the easiest steps is to "Leave well enough alone" to quote Ziggy. Undeveloped land does very well except for raging floodwaters with no place to go (often the result of human building.) Paved parking lots add to such runoff, plus needing maintenance. Building creep means more heating, cooling, lighting and cables.
Metroparks roadsides lined with signs (and ads!) are unattractive; the signs bases are sprayed to control wisps of weeds. Less land maintenance means fewer employees resulting in smaller buildings and fewer vehicles. The Grow Not Mow program was a good start, but much more could be done. Regulations could be listed just at the entrance (as done in other parks); parking lots could be pervious materials.
One project could be undertaken immediately. Frostville Historical Society in Rocky River Reservation is planning to install four permanent flush toilets in an old garage. To do this they will have to install a pump station and force main (EPA permit #626329, open comment period until 5/10/08) to pump the sewage up out of the valley, around the top and then back down to the treatment plant. For four toilets - and they may still need added temporary facilities for events.
How about using Romtec type restrooms which are working well elsewhere, and treating the graywater onsite in a demonstration program (great teaching opportunity!) - thus saving water and energy, not to speak of money. It will not affect pollution levels because the waste is already trucked to a treatment plant while the gray water can be absorbed slowly into the environment rather than being poured into a waterway. An appropriate low tech way for a historical village to function.
