Doan Brook Watershed Partnership

Public programs and stewardship: in 2024, dbwp continued to host existing educational outreach and habitat stewardship programs and began work on curriculum design for novel school outreach programs in our watershed. We offered 48 in person events including family fishing day, 2 fishing workshops, take to the lake, 2 rain barrel workshops, 3 stream cleanups, 6 hikes in all seasons, 1 bike ride, 1 fishing rod assembly day and 31 native habitat stewardship days at lower lake, the doan brook gorge, and at the grow not mow sites in shaker heights. In total, we had over 1087 attendees visit our events, and volunteers completed over 2337 hours of habitat stewardship.

Green infrastructure: in the fall of 2024, dbwp worked in collaboration to install a rain garden at sunbeam school, a cleveland metropolitan school district school that serves youth from underserved neighborhoods in cleveland, and includes programming for special education students.

Planning: dbwp hosted a committee of city, sewer district, volunteer and non-profit representatives to collectively work on shaker lakes parklands management. Dbwp continues to serve the central lake erie basin collaborative (cleb) steering committee. Dbwp is one of five organizations to serve the collaborative in this capacity. The cleb met more frequently to support one another during covid. Executive director mo drinkard also serves on the neorsd steering committee, restore rockefeller park, cuyahoga areas of concern, dbwp spent many planning and education hours on a dam removal controversy in our watershed, which was initiated by neorsd and the cities of cleveland heights and shaker heights. Restoration: dbwp was awarded a healthy urban tree canopy grant from cuyahoga county for 95,000 to plant fifty trees and prune, treat, and maintain more than 60 historic trees in rockefeller park. Dbwp received a neorsd watershed service agreement for 45,000,many other program related grants to support events and outreach in the watershed. We also received a 100% cost-waiver from the usace through their planning assistance for states program to conduct a complete ecological assessment in the rockefeller reach of the doan brook. This assessment is valued at 235,000.