5 Things You Might Not Know About the CVEEC

 

1. The CVEEC has been hosting school groups since 1994.

Cuyahoga Valley Association (CVA), a non-profit organization consisting of two employees at the time, agreed to operate the Environmental Education Center in 1993.  They partnered with the National Park Service and began writing curriculum for the center.  CVEEC officially opened in 1994 and began hosting students.  After several merges, CVA eventually became the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  Pictured above are EEC staff preparing for one of the first opening ceremonies at the Everett Road Covered Bridge (notice the familiar ranger!) and interns from the very first intern class experimenting with water quality tests in the Lipscomb Lab.  (Check back soon for a post on the schools who have been coming to the EEC for 20 years!)

 

2. The cement benches on campus were installed by Arts LIFT.

Operated through the University of Akron, Arts LIFT is a summer arts apprenticeship program allowing high school students from Akron Public Schools to work with local area artists.  The director of Arts LIFT, Eliza Gargarella, is a former EEC intern and helped to coordinate this 2010 project. The benches installed at the CVEEC were designed to showcase the ecological components of the ecosystems in which they are placed; buttery garden, woodlands, and wetland.  Learn more about the project here.

 

3. There was once a tennis court on campus.

This tennis court was installed before the park acquired EEC land.  It was removed in 1999 during the construction of the November Lodge, as it was no longer in use and was near the lodge construction site.  Though the court is gone, the pine trees in the picture remain and shield the Lodge from the west winds.

 

4. We have a partnership with a park in Slovakia.

As part of the National Park Service Sister Park Program, Cuyahoga Valley has formed a connection with Zahorie Protected Landscape Area in Slovakia.  Over the years, CVEEC has recruited several interns through this partnership.   Pictured above are Barbora and Martin, part of the 2012-2013 intern team.  Barbora and Martin worked with the Daphne Institute of Applied Ecology in Slovakia before coming to the CVEEC.  (Check back soon for a full post on our Slovakian partnership!)

 

5. Lipscomb barn was once an artist studio.

John Gilson was the first documented land owner of the Lipscomb campus property.  In 1841, Gilson bought approximately 100 acres of land for the equivalent of $120 U.S. dollars.  The Lipscomb House was built in 1854 and the barn followed later in 1870.  After Gilson’s departure, the land had many owners through the 1900s, the most recent being an interior designer who used the barn as her studio.  Today, the renovated barn is used as our main kitchen and dining hall.  Pictured above is the barn during the initial EEC construction.