The Akron Roundtable has proudly promoted community dialog and networking for the past 49 years and remains committed to our mission to bring the world to Akron by inviting individuals with diverse backgrounds and life experiences to speak on relevant topics, to inform and educate our community, compelling us to think differently, consider other perspectives, and encourage us to take action.

It is our privilege to welcome Dr. Lisa Petit, Superintendent, Cuyahoga Valley National Park to the podium today.

The title of her presentation is Cuyahoga Valley 50 Becoming a National Park to the People.

Our speaker has agreed to take questions from the audience following today's conversation.

John Garofalo, vice President, Community Investment, Akron Community Foundation and Akron Roundtable Board member Will moderate the Q&A.

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Feel free to submit your questions at any time during today's presentation.

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And if you would like to submit a question, but without an electronic device, there should be cards on your table where you can write your question down.

And one of our staff members will collect those.

You can read more about this month's speaker, future Akron roundtable speakers and individuals and organizations who support our mission by referring to the brochures on your table.

Those brochures are made possible by a gift from the Lyle M Buckingham Fund.

Here to introduce Lisa is Deb Yandala President and CEO Conservancy for the Clogher Valley National Park.

The Conservancy is also today's program sponsor, for which we are very grateful.

Thank you, Jeff.

Thank you, Lisa.

Good afternoon.

It's wonderful, wonderful to see all of you.

And I want to thank you for joining us today in celebrating the 50th anniversary of Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you our park superintendent, Dr. Lisa Petit.

We consider Lisa to be a home grown superintendent.

She grew up in Washington, D.C., but she spent her entire career with the National Park Service here in our national Park.

I first became acquainted with Lisa when she was a park biologist.

It is a gift to our park to have a leader with her depth of understanding of the natural resources of our park, especially within our regional urban context.

Lisa's intellect, experience and leadership capabilities make her an ideal leader for one of the most complex national parks in the national park system.

Our model of a national park with a local community interwoven into its fiber is very different than many national parks.

Lisa understands this and from her very first day prioritized that.

Our park is one that serves the communities around us in a multitude of ways.

We've recently had several opportunities to host national meetings in our park.

Last fall or a year ago in the fall, we hosted the National Park Friends Alliance, which was over 300 national park leaders.

Leaders of groups like mine.

Parks.

Superintendents.

Regional and national.

National leaders of the Park Service.

Most of them had never been to Northeast Ohio and had never been to our national park.

And they were blown away.

Blown away by the beauty of our park, by the Cuyahoga River and by the way that we work with the community.

The comment that I hear most often from my colleagues since that meeting a year and a half ago is you have a really fabulous park superintendent.

And my response is always, you can't have her.

We also last summer hosted the National Park Foundation Board of Directors.

These are leaders of of philanthropy from throughout the country.

Almost all of them had never been to northeast Ohio and likewise were completely blown away by their experience in the Cuyahoga Valley and the experience in northeastern Ohio.

And we're especially impressed with the management style of Lisa, which so embraces the community.

Early in my career, in a training session for leaders of groups like mine and national park superintendents, I was given an analogy that I've never forgotten, and this analogy is about a three legged race.

Now, probably some of you don't know what that is.

Others will remember this.

In today's kind of post COVID sensitive world, we don't do these kind of races anymore.

But this analogy of two people on a team and you tie the two inter legs together and then you race other are these are two person, three legged teams.

And what you quickly learn in a three legged race is that if those two people go off in their own directions, you fall down and you don't get to the end of the race.

If you recognize that, you move forward together by stepping together, you're the winner.

This is the kind of leadership that Lisa provides for our national park.

She works with us as park partners, both us and the scenic railroad.

She works with the community.

She works with her staff in a race where we're all going forward together.

We are so lucky to have a superintendent like that.

Lisa is a gifted leader and she knows that our region is successful, in part because of our parks.

We have wonderful metroparks, wonderful city parks, fabulous public lands, the Towpath Trail.

Our parks are fabulous.

They're here to serve the community.

They're here to enrich the lives of our residents.

And she takes that to heart.

And that is the way she leads.

It is my honor and privilege to introduce to you to my colleague, introduce you to my colleague and my dear friend, Lisa Petit.

Thank you, Barry.

And thank you so much, Deb, for that kind introduction, my friend.

I do where I wouldn't want anyone else in a three legged race than you as my partner.

Good afternoon, everyone, and happy first day of spring.

It's a little rainy and chilly, but that's the way it is around here.

I am truly honored to be here with you at the Akron Roundtable.

It's my pleasure to talk with you about my love, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, as we are about to kick off a busy visitor season.

And it is our 50th anniversary year, so I'll talk to you about that whole thing.

But before I begin, I would like to ask you to indulge me with a show of hands.

I think I might know this one, but could I have a show of hands?

How many of you have spent time in your national park?

Thank you.

That's awesome.

I've seen so many people here that I haven't seen in quite a while.

Some of them from the past.

It's at Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

My colleagues in one form or another.

And it's just wonderful to see you here.

And it's a it's a room full of friends.

So I thank you for that.

Now that all of you have spent some time in this national park, I want you to think, if you would, please recall your favorite memory, a favorite memory or a time when you were in the park.

What impacted you the most to make you have that memory?

How did you feel at the time?

How did the park make you feel?

So please think about that.

Keep that in your mind.

Keep those memories in your mind as we go through the talks today.

Now, for me, as a kid growing up in the sixties and seventies in the Washington, D.C. suburbs and as I was reflecting before coming here today about my associations with national parks as a child, I was always drawn to nature and it didn't matter if it was in the backyard or if more exotic place, you know, suburban kid.

But I realized my first memories were of urban national parks in Washington, D.C., and in particular, I hadn't really thought about this very much before now.

I remember frequent visits to our local park, Great Falls Park, in McLean, Virginia.

And I don't know if any of you have been there.

McLean, Virginia is where I grew up.

And to me, Great Falls was an amazing wilderness along the Potomac River.

And it wasn't until right now that I realize the similarity between Great Falls and Cuyahoga.

Maybe my childhood playground along the Potomac River was what drew me here and caused me to stay for 25 years in this national park where my two daughters could have their playground along the Cuyahoga River.

But as much as I loved nature and really when it was outside all the time when I was a kid, I also absolutely loved movies, movies, movies, movies, old, contemporary.

It didn't matter.

I can't help but think today as I go through life and career, I'm constantly thinking of characters and quotes from movies, and unfortunately, I say them a lot and is really annoying for my family or ask my staff.

My film heroes have always been underdogs, altruists, even anti-heroes.

Ordinary, flawed people who prevailed against tremendous odds to do the right thing, to do great things.

And my favorite movie of all time, you could ask anybody in my family, it is.

It's a Wonderful Life.

It's the story of George Bailey, a man who had the chance to see what life would be like if he had never been born.

So today, I'm going to take you through the journey of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the George Bailey of National Parks, and I'll subtitle this talk.

It's a wonderful part.

So there I live by quotes and movie quotes.

There are some famous quotes from this film that I want you to think of through this journey.

No, no, no.

It is not that one.

Every time a bell rings.

No, it's not that one.

I want you to think of two other quotes from the Angel Clarence to George.

These are the main lessons of the movie.

Many of you probably can quote these yourselves.

Remember?

No, man is a failure who has friends.

Each man's life touches so many other lives when he isn't around.

He leaves an awful hole.

As in the film.

Let's start at the beginning of our George Bailey, the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area.

National parks are America's best idea.

They are a symbol of our uniqueness and the democratic ideals of this country, established by and for the people.

For this and future generations.

This was the belief and vision of Congressman John soberly as he worked to protect the Cuyahoga Valley in the 1970s.

Cyberlink, of course, an astronaut and the grandson of the famous founder of what would become the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

And he faced significant challenges in trying to establish this very unusual national park.

The Nixon Administration's Parks to People initiative was intended to bring national parks into or near urban centers.

And it was during that time in the late sixties and early seventies that Cyberlink tried but failed the first time to move his first bill through Congress to protect the Cuyahoga Valley and establish a national park.

Because, of course, what a national park in Akron, Ohio.

There's nothing there.

According to Congress, what was there of significance to be worthy of National Park?

And after the establishment of two gateway urban parks under the parks to people movement in New York and San Francisco, the Nixon administration was not enthusiastic about spending more federal dollars on land protection, particularly not in this area where the state of Ohio and metro parks in Akron and in Cleveland.

We're doing a fine job already by themselves.

The Metro Parks had been established 50 years earlier at least.

Also, where was the public support for something like this?

Where was the public support?

So Cyberlink went back to the drawing board and he gathered his friends in Congress on both sides of the aisle.

Friends like Congressman Ralph Regular and Charles Vanek.

State elected officials like the governor of Ohio, as well as the people of northeast Ohio and most especially the Akron Garden Club, featured prominently championed the formation of the park in those early days and have supported it strongly, staunchly, ever since.

The people came together with a strong grassroots effort to testify to the urgent need to protect the Cuyahoga Valley from sprawling development, specifically through federal designation.

And yet, President Gerald Ford in 1974 was not convinced that he should sign this and designate this park as a national park.

He had to be convinced, perhaps coerced, perhaps threatened by Senator Robert Taft, Jr.

While ford was on a christmas ski trip to vail in december of 1974, Taft told him he would lose the vote in Ohio.

At that time, we were still a very strong swing state.

He would lose the vote in Ohio in 1976 if he denied this designation.

And so it was signed with the help of the people, friends of John Cyberlink and friends of the Cuyahoga Valley.

The Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area was born on December 27th, 1974.

By then came the tough part, actually establishing this park.

Very, very tough, very rough early start.

And the National Park Service was taking a very traditional approach when perhaps we needed a little lighter touch and a little more innovation.

Kind of like in It's a Wonderful Life, the villainous Mr. Potter coming in, as it were, this big bank instead of a nimble Bailey building and loan approach to getting the job done.

Most national parks we think of are pristine.

They're remote.

We think of them as unpopulated.

Although the formation of many of our earliest national parks were over populated areas with Native Americans, this park was created overtop of a populated valley as well, bridging the area between two cities.

And as I said, they already had high quality metro parks districts.

Akron Metroparks, of course, another Cyberlink family effort to protect those areas and these were generally supported generously through county tax levies already.

So not surprisingly, many people living in the valley where this was to be created, they vigorously opposed this federal land grab.

There was a great deal of hostility against the federal government and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who was tasked with buying up the land on behalf of the National Park Service, was typically heavy handed in the effort.

The first superintendent of the National Recreation Area, Bill Birdsall, oversaw this dirty work and he died at his desk.

He's actually buried in the park.

Ronald Reagan's secretary of the interior.

James, what is that?

A familiar name?

He had actually been a vocal critic when the early hearings were happening.

He was not in the secretary's office, of course, at that time, but he was openly opposing the establishment of the park in his role as secretary of the interior.

He absolutely tried to remove the park from the national park system.

That's hardly ever been done.

There's only maybe two or three places that have actually been under designated.

And he was trying to remove us from the national Park system.

The park was the subject of a scathing Frontline documentary in the eighties, and there was even a short film parody that you can look up today.

I can't remember the name of it, though.

So the people's support was waning.

Cyberlink's good intentions were going very wrong.

And as in the film, George Bailey struggled to keep the building and loan afloat during hard times, and there were very tough times for the young Steve NHRA Through most of the 1980s.

Being a fan of underdogs, the story of Cuyahoga Valley National Park was irresistible to me.

Here was a park lacking the self-esteem and self-confidence to realize its own potential.

It seemed they were suffering from a kind of imposter syndrome.

The staff really bought in to the you're not worthy to be a real national park sentiment of the area and of the times.

But Cyberlink and regular champions throughout eventually had the person with the ability to move the park toward the vision of a national park to the people.

Superintendent John Debo and Debo went about the work of reigniting public support by building connections with the public connections, both figuratively and literally, through relationships and in the form of the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail and the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.

He also looked to the example of a previous park to the people, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, to create an official group of friends.

We know them now as the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Our philanthropic partner and friends group with the Conservancy, Debo was able to build strong relationships with community, his constituents, advocates and individuals who would support the work of the park.

This created spiritual and physical connections and cultivated the value of this place for the people of Northeast Ohio.

And because of those connections, we have come very far since the rough early days of the park's existence.

For example, today, the Multi-Use Towpath Trail, which began within Cuyahoga Valley, now extends for over 100 unbroken miles through the designated Ohio and Erie Canal Way National Heritage Area from Lake Erie in the north to New Philadelphia.

In the south, Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad now carries an average of 150,000 passengers through this national park every year, with events like the magical North Pole adventure or the everyday service of shuttling thousands of bikers, hikers and paddlers along the multimodal system of rail trail and river.

Since its creation 30 years ago, the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park has provided environmental education for 200,000 plus children.

They have engaged every year for two 6000 volunteers who give more than 100000 hours of service every year, totaling around 3 to $4 million and the equivalent labor cost for the park in the past ten years, the conservancy has been able to raise over $30 million in direct private support from local foundations, corporations and individuals for numerous capital projects, public programs and exceptional visitor experiences in the park.

As for preserving and protecting Cuyahoga Valley National Park, this is the main mission of our national park.

The initial protection of 50 square miles of park along 26 miles of river and the ongoing restoration efforts in the park have contributed significantly to the overall environmental health and recovery of nature in this region.

And beginning in the 1980s, the park joined the work of Summit Metroparks, the city of Akron, and dozens of governmental and non-governmental stakeholders.

Gary Whitten is in the in the audience and he has been at the forefront of this effort with stakeholders, communities and individuals.

Gary Whitten to transform the once burning Cuyahoga River from being the poster child for the worst of industrial pollution in the cities to a waterway brimming with native fish and wildlife and a state designated recreational water trail that in 2024 brought forth thousand paddlers through the national park.

No one would have imagined that in 1974 it was hard to imagine.

In 2004, one of the most remarkable environmental comebacks in the history of this country right here on the Cuyahoga River and preserving such a large natural area really matters a lot for our health, our wellness and our quality of life.

Decades of research, study after study has shown that human connection to nature is vital for physical and emotional health and indeed happiness.

Time spent in nature can improve mental concentration, lower the blood pressure, reduce anxiety and depression, improve sleep quality and harness child development, and much, much more.

Time spent in parks encourages healthy physical and fosters more social connection, which is now serving as an antidote to the persistent feelings of loneliness and isolation that we seem to have found to be ever present, especially since the pandemic I've just laid out for you why and how Cuyahoga Valley has become a wonderful park over the last 50 years.

And now, in 2025, the country once again has turned a spotlight on federal government efficiencies and return on investment of tax dollars.

Absolutely essential that we do this, and every organization that is supported by tax dollars is beholden to the taxpayers to provide value in exchange for that public investment and public trust.

Let's go back to our movie.

George Bailey's struggling building alone.

When looked at through the strict lens of financial return does not seem to be much of anything.

It's not worth much, but the audience knows that the Bailey Building and Loan provides for ordinary people of Bedford Falls to help them realize their own American dream and improve their quality of life.

The Bailey Building and Loan did not measure its bottom line with dollar signs, but rather with a quality of life benefit that allowed everyone to prosper.

What is our product?

What value do we offer at the national park to the public?

What is the return on investment for the taxpayer?

I've talked about it a little bit already.

Our commodities, our experiences, physical and emotional, health and wellness, recreation, childlike awe and wonder and learning and peace and lasting memories.

Clean air and water, connections to nature, to history to art and to each other.

Deep, meaningful life experiences.

In short quality of life for our communities.

At the beginning of this talk, I asked you to keep your special memories of Park of your Park experiences in mind As I became superintendent few years ago, I have repeatedly been approached by people, visitors to the park or people like yourselves in the communities who come up to me to tell me all that they value of this national park and their stories, the things that they remember most, and the things that get to me the most.

And so I may cry.

I will try not to, but the ones that affect me the most are those stories of people who come to the park seeking healing healing from cancer treatments.

Either they were here during their cancer treatments or they're here to celebrate being cancer free, or any kind of life altering event.

They come to seek peace and solace after the loss of a loved one.

Perhaps that loved one loved the park, and they go to the place that reminds them.

So while you've been thinking about your memories, if you would, just by show of hands, when I go through these things, how many of your smash your special memories have been about celebration of life, events, weddings?

Did you come to weddings?

Did you have a wedding here?

Did you get engaged here?

Did you have any other kind of special life event here?

Go ahead and raise your hands.

Very nice.

How many of your memories have involved the fact that you went to the Environmental Education Center or your children or your grandchildren went to the environmental education centers?

Anybody have that?

Yeah.

How many of your memories are associated with the TOWPATH or some other trail system in the park?

Yeah, that's borne out in the survey.

So thank you for that associate with the river.

How many of you paddled?

Maybe you saw charismatic wildlife on that river fishing.

How many of you been regular customers maybe to park farms or the farmers market and how Meadow and yeah.

How many of you rode the train?

Yes.

Steam is returning in April.

Concerts.

Yes.

Rhythm on the river and previously Music in the Meadow and other concerts that happen and art shows that happen in the valley.

Deb wants to know, did you buy anything in the stores?

Trail mix?

Yes.

And Boston Store.

Now, in business, when you ask what determines the price or value of a commodity, the answer is whatever the people will pay.

People themselves.

You have determine the value of this place and people support us generously because of the value we bring.

Okay.

You're still probably asking maybe why a federal park?

What fell you does a national park bring beyond what was already here?

And in fact, all of those things I mentioned, except some of the specifics you can find in the Metro parks, best in the nation, Metro parks in northeast Ohio in 2024, national parks across America served a record 331 million visitors.

The population of the United States is only 340 million people.

They brought in those visitors $30 billion in economic benefits to the local economies of their gateway communities.

Most of those are the remote parks who we know about, whose visitors are all coming from far away and staying longer.

And I don't ever want to suggest the Cuyahoga Valley National Park is going to have the same kind of economic impact as Yellowstone or the Great Smoky Mountains.

Those where's the George Bailey?

Those are the Harry Bailey and the Sam Wainwright of the world.

Now, when we were renamed, though, in a national park in 2000, that's where we hitched to that brand that people recognize public awareness of the national park grew, and now, with an annual visitation of nearly 3 million people every year, we are consistently ranked in the top 10% of all 433 national park units.

And we're regularly in the top 10 to 12 of anything that is named a national park in this country.

A study conducted in 2023, a socioeconomic study, indicated that the total number of visits to the Cuyahoga Valley had increased by about 28% between 2015 and 2023.

And the proportion of visitors coming from outside of northeast Ohio in 2015 was about, you know, 17%, something like that, less than 20%.

In 2023, 45% of our visitors came from outside of this area.

That's four or five out of every ten people you meet in Cuyahoga Valley came from outside this local area.

We are no longer just a backyard park.

More importantly, those outside visitors came specifically to visit this national park and stayed about two days right now in accommodations outside of the park.

So because of this visitor spending, economic impact to our gateway communities jumped 180% from $80 million to $225 million into our economy and into our gateway communities in 2023, because people were staying longer.

They're spending their money in in overnight accommodations, eating at restaurants, shopping in the area, etc.

During their visit specifically to the national park.

And communities are recognizing this economic that these kinds of economic opportunities that occur around national park tourism.

We now have four Summit County communities, city of Akron, city of Cuyahoga Falls, Villages of Peninsula and Boston Heights, proudly declaring themselves gateways to the National Park and Summit.

Metroparks commercial opportunities are already here.

We have two private campgrounds within the boundary of the national park.

Camping was one of the most requested activity in the park for years.

The Valley Overlook at Camp Mueller and Heritage Farms and Peninsula.

We have bike rentals and I want to give a shout out.

Send our hearts out to Eddy's bike shop suffered a tragic loss of their business in Peninsula but we're working.

We're helping alongside the village and the Peninsula Foundation to ensure that they have and the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad to ensure that they some business for the summer in peninsula we have kayak rentals going on Airbnbs popping up and the master plans in Merriman Valley Peninsula and Summit County are considering future development that promotes economic opportunities that are aligned with the tourism and recreation and environmental values of the National Park and Summit.

Metroparks We're celebrating 50 years.

50 years seems like a long time, although 50 doesn't seem as old to me now as it once did.

And we're not as old of a word of a park as the parks around us.

You know, the summit metroparks and we're still kind of middle aged and we're still becoming the national park to the people that we were first envisioned to be.

The 2023 survey I just mentioned showed that we still have more to do to be attractive and accessible to families, disabled people, mobility challenged people, lower income communities, ethnic and racial minorities, young adults and many more.

Today, 94% of our visitors come by personal car.

We want to be more accessible to people without cars.

We want to connect this national park and the city of Akron to downtown Cleveland by Scenic Railroad.

We want to reach all of our communities and increase economic benefits through tourism to the entire region.

We want to elevate the history of all people who have valued the Cuyahoga Valley from Native Americans whose ancestors lived here for thousands of years, to African-Americans who enjoyed decades of rest, spent recreation and entertainment in the valley.

We are engaging our communities in co-creating the design of our newest property, a former golf course in Peninsula.

By doing this, we will better connect our visitors to the village of Peninsula, and we will provide new experien that aren't currently visiting this park.

Let's go back to my first quote.

One of the first quotes Each man's life touches so many other lives.

When he isn't around, he leaves an awful hole.

So what if Cuyahoga Valley Park National Park, like George Bailey, had never existed?

I'm going to give you some what I think are realistic scenarios.

For what?

If we didn't exist, would we now have wall to wall residential and commercial development in the valley pavement infrastructure throughout?

We'd almost definitely have a mall sitting at the site of the former Richard Richfield Coliseum.

Would the Cuyahoga River be this clean or would is still be pretty dead and maybe still burning?

I don't think we'd have a Towpath trail and I don't think we'd have any kind of heritage area 110 miles long.

We'd almost likely not have had a scenic railroad survive that long.

I think our ski areas, Hale farm, they would have either been lost to development or Disneyfied, maybe Metroparks Still, Golden might have been isolated as Islands.

And really, would there be tattoo parlors and pawn in Peninsula?

It's Pottersville and Peninsula Oak.

Okay.

No, probably not.

Probably not.

The people created this park.

People run the park and provide the services.

People in our communities embrace us, value us, and lend their time, talents and dollars to help us thrive for the betterment of all of our lives.

When George Bailey was in crisis, believing that he was worth more dead than alive, his friends and community rallied around him to show their love and support.

This movie gets me for Cuyahoga Valley National Park in its 50th year and going through some new challenges.

Our friends and communities have rallied around us.

You have to show their love and support of this place that has touched their lives.

They're not here, all of them, but they're here with me.

All of the federal employees who work for Cuyahoga Valley National Park are proud to serve you.

They are proud to serve the people of Northeast Ohio and all visitors who come to see us.

Here's to 50 more years and more after that of having our friends at our side.

If our value and our worth, I tell you, this movie gets to me by the people in the friends that we have.

Then here's a toast.

Like his brother Harry said to George, to Cuyahoga Valley, the richest national park in town.

Thank you.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you for your support.

Come and see us in the valley.

Appreciate it.

So.

Good afternoon, everyone.

John Garofala vice president of Community Investment for your Akron Community Foundation and proud as a proud board member of the Akron Roundtable.

Lisa, on behalf of all of us, thank you for your love, your passion, your dedication and commitment to what is arguably one of the best places that we have in our community.

A lot of people want to know.

A lot of questions answered.

So I'll try to make these easy for you.

But with all the federal cuts that we have been hearing about, can you talk more about the economic impact that that's going to have on our region if those go through?

And then what can we as residents of this community do to tell our lawmakers that this needs to change?

Yes.

Thank you, John.

I anticipated this question, of course.

And, you know, I will be honest with you, it's been tough.

It's been very tough.

But, you know, the subject of the talk really has borne out of this time frame because it is about the friends and the love and the support of the communities for us and what we've done with you to become what we are, what we are is a a confederation, a cooperation and a collaboration with our communities.

And we have official friends who help us and all of you as as friends as well.

And that's what helps gives us the strength.

And together we are making something much better than, the sum of its parts.

And this and what the federal government could do all by itself.

No federal dollars to this national park.

We need them because we are the federal employees are the administers of this place for you.

There will be challenges coming forward, no doubt.

But we are stronger here and we're able to weather those challenges because of our support from our friends and our communities.

And all of you.

You've already shown your voice in person and also, I'm sure, behind the scenes.

And I would just ask you to continue to show your support for this national park and for national parks across the country and appreciate everything you do.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

Based on our region's environmental resilience, how are the needs and opportunities of our park different than others?

So the needs and opportunities so the needs are, you know, I talked about the resilience that is being created by a big natural food joint, you know, huge natural area through the metro parks and the national park and others.

That in and of itself is is resilient.

But we are at the base of a steep walled valley and there is residents residential development all around us.

And so the storm water, you know if we talk about long term kind of environmental impacts to the valley, it's all around, you know, changes in flooding regimes, changes in climate, changes in, you know, amounts of storm water coming from above or down river.

And those are unique challenges to a place like us.

We don't have those large swaths of land that are protecting us and buffering us.

On the other hand, what we have is the ability to rebound, restore?

We are we are recovering and we are getting healthier in nature, in our condition, rather our environmental condition.

And I would say a lot of other national parks, you know, we really are, I think, the park of the future in many, many ways, because the National Park of the future, because many of the other national parks are suffering from some of the same things, but they aren't equipped to deal with it.

And they have it's it's they haven't had to.

And now and now they they are starting to to feel the impact that they are not prepared for.

I think because we were a, you know, a well-used a well-loved landscape and and somewhat damaged all of our efforts to restore has helped us become more resilient to changes in the future.

So those are and the opportunities also are a lot of national parks don't have this kind of network of people who can help them and are working together towards some of these long term intractable problems that come.

You know, we really need the whole Northeast Ohio group to recover a river or to recover a landscape or be able to respond to the changes that come to us.

And that is really one of our strengths and the opportunity to continue building that coalition.

Thank you.

Are you concerned about the park being opened up for drilling and what would the potential impact be if that were to happen?

We already have a lot of drilling going on.

We have a lot of oil and gas wells in the park.

The National Park Service has, you know, been able to deal with some of this over time through regulation, through working with the oil and gas industry to do it correctly, to not have negative impacts on natural resources.

I don't really anticipate further opening up of the Cuyahoga Valley to oil and gas.

Um, we have a lot going on.

The operators are under solid plans.

We are plugging abandoned wells.

Um, we work with the state of Ohio on all of this, so I don't see this as a new challenge.

I really don't.

And I don't, I'm not afraid of, you know, horrific things happening in the Cuyahoga Valley.

I think that that won't happen.

I think we do a good job of managing thoughtfully and for workable solutions.

Dr. Pettit, you mentioned a few times in your presentation the partnership with the Metroparks.

An audience member wants to know, do you consider them a competitor and how do you work together?

No, not at all.

Although, you know, anybody who comes in to manage a park district in this region has to be named Lisa.

So, Lisa.

Lisa, we are best friends and not at all competitors.

The staff of the summit Metroparks have been some of our leaders in terms of helping us understand how better to manage our lands.

And we work extremely well together on so many things with management, with planning.

They're definitely a friend who helps us out in times of need and we really appreciate them.

CBP has done a beautiful job of illustrating what makes Summit County so uniquely excellent in the arts and remarkable environmental assets.

What is one of your favorite experiences of arts in the Park?

Oh, there's so much, but I think I hadn't really thought about this one.

But the first thing that leads to my mind is actually something that happened relatively recently where the conservancy work to bring artists into the park, to have more interactive art with our visitors.

And that was really a remarkable experience, and I'm going to get the facts wrong, Dad.

So I'm sorry about that.

But one of the artists and I'm forgetting your name, so I'm really, really sorry, but she created a on the parking lot of where the Boston store is in the heart of Boston there right near the Towpath Trail.

And it is a nice mural of kind of reminiscent of the recovery of the river.

And it's just has all beautiful colors and lines.

And it was also created in part with park visitors.

So they were able to come and and add to the mural and watch her as she worked.

And then also so they had a part in it and it was just so symbolic of what we are.

And it's very beautiful and it's held up really, really nicely.

It's still there and that's one of my favorites.

Thank you so much for being our presenter today and for overseeing a park that contributes to part of a wonderful life for all of us who live in northeast Ohio.

To quote your favorite movie.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thanks to our partnership with Ideastream Public Media, PBS Western Reserve, and University of Akron's ZTV, today's program will be aired on multiple channels over the next several weeks.

It will also be rebroadcast on KSU 89.7 on April 3rd.

Additionally, the series will be available to stream on demand on the Akron Roundtable, PBS's Western Reserve and Ideastream Websites and the PBS app.

Thank you to the University of Akron and its Excel Center for Community Engaged Learning for sponsoring our podcast series.

Our next signature series luncheon will be held on Thursday, April 17th, here in beautiful downtown Akron, featuring Madhu Sharma, director of the International Institute of Akron, and Farhad Sethna, attorney with Immigration America.

The topic of their presentation will be in search of solutions to the challenges facing us, immigrants and refugees.

We hope you can join us for that presentation.

Have a great day.

This has been a production of Akron Roundtable, PBS's Western Reserve, the University of Akron and Ideastream Public Media.