Watershed Management
From Rocky River to Euclid Creek, Cuyahoga SWCD works to raise awareness of our watersheds among residents, businesses, and local leaders, while implementing impactful restoration projects.
“THE HEALTH OF OUR WATERS IS THE PRINCIPAL MEASURE OF HOW WE LIVE ON THE LAND.”
-Luna B. Leopold, 1st Chief Hydrologist of the US Geological Survey
At its core, Watershed Management is about balancing society’s use of our land and water resources with the ability of those resources to support and sustain the natural and human communities that depend on them. In the most highly urbanized county in Ohio, the health of our floodplains, rivers, and Lake Erie is primarily dictated by our ability and willingness to keep stormwater runoff in balance with the landscape’s ability to absorb and filter it.
Cuyahoga SWCD’s Watershed Program works at a local level across Cuyahoga County to foster a community-based watershed stewardship effort involving elected officials, citizens, and watershed groups. We are actively engaged in implementing watershed initiatives in the Euclid Creek, Rocky River, and Cuyahoga River watersheds.
Cuyahoga SWCD's Watershed Work
Stream Health and Management Resources
Your Backyard Stream: An Owner’s Manual – This 1-hour recorded presentation covers a wide range of topics including your rights and responsibilities as a stream owner, an introduction to how streams function and an overview of common stream-related problems and solutions.
Life at the Water’s Edge – Introductory information about your backyard stream and how to care for it.
Life at the Water’s Edge Fact Sheets – These fact sheets explore topics covered in the Life at the Water’s Edge booklet in more detail.
- Life at the Waters Edge Fact Sheet #1 – Introduction to Streamside Management
- Life at the Waters Edge Fact Sheet #2 – How Streams Work
- Life at the Waters Edge Fact Sheet #3 – Don’t Mow in the Riparian Zone!
- Life at the Waters Edge Fact Sheet #4 – Plant Live Stakes to Stabilize Your Stream!
- Life at the Waters Edge Fact Sheet #5 – Don’t Dump!
Communities are often responsible for flood protection and water conservation but lack a specific program for dealing with stream maintenance. Stream maintenance projects they do undertake often have unintended consequences and create new problems while attempting to solve others. Funded by an Ohio EPA Ohio Environmental Education Fund (OEEF) grant and later named a 2016 OEEF Outstanding Project, Cuyahoga SWCD developed the Watershed-Friendly Stream Maintenance manual to help guide communities in establishing a watershed-friendly stream maintenance program and provides suggestions for how to deal with typical stream maintenance issues.
Watershed-Friendly Stream Maintenance: A Guide for Communities
Watershed-Friendly Stream Maintenance for Communities recorded presentation
Communities interested in learning more about Watershed-Friendly Stream Maintenance, hosting a training in their community, or with questions about stream maintenance issues should contact us using the button below.
Protecting Our Streams & Wetlands: A Resident’s Guide to Community Policies – This guidebook is meant for anyone who wants to learn more about their home watershed and ways to protect our land and waters for the present and the future. Each section has graphics, figures, definitions, and ways to learn more. This was created through a grant form Freshwater Future as a complement to public workshops but can be utilized on its own as well. We hope you use it as a jumping off point into watershed protection.
Community Riparian & Wetland Guidance: Putting All the Pieces Together – This booklet provides information about wetlands and riparian areas and guidance to help community leaders protect these sensitive areas through community ordinances. Developed by Cuyahoga SWCD in partnership with Ohio EPA, NOACA, USEPA and USDA-NRCS with funding from the USEPA-Great Lakes National Program Office.
Leave it Natural – Conservation Easements on Your Property – Cuyahoga SWCD holds nearly 300 acres of selected wetlands and riparian lands in conservation easements. A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust, private non-profit organization, or a government agency, such as Cuyahoga SWCD, that limits certain land uses while protecting others. Landowners retain the title and certain rights to the property, but not in ways that infringe upon the conservation easement agreement. This booklet describes what it means to have a conservation easement on your property.
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