Green Space + Parks

Water music: Cleveland Metroparks announces 16-week traveling waterfront Summer Concert Series
Cleveland Metroparks is gearing up for summer, with its Summer Concert Series at various Metroparks waterfront locations. starting May 18, and opening its summer operations and lifeguarded swim areas.
Holden Forests & Gardens celebrates Arbor Day
Arbor Day is tomorrow, Friday, April 28. In honor of the day set aside for the planting, upkeep, preservation, and celebration of trees, Holden Forests & Gardens has a bunch of activities planned.
The fate of Euclid Beach Motor Home Park
After more than a year of planning and community meetings on the Euclid Beach Mobile Home Park, Western Reserve Land Conservancy in February told the residents they must move out and the property will become a part of the Cleveland Metroparks and a larger revitalization project for North Collinwood and Lakeshore Avenue.
Take a hike: Cleveland Metroparks 2023 Trail Challenge is underway; a look back at the 2022 trails
The Cleveland Metroparks 2023 Trail Challenge is underway! Find out how to enroll and read about Erin O'Brien's experiences on the 2022 Trail Challenge in this recap.
Enjoy the weather: Spring is in full bloom at the Cleveland Metroparks
Spring has arrived in Northeast Ohio, and Cleveland Metroparks has planned plenty of April activities to get out and enjoy the weather.
Help the Cleveland Metroparks Police Department name the two newest additions to the K-9 unit
The Cleveland Metroparks Police Department welcomed two new K-9 officers-in-training to its force in December. As they begin training, they need names.
Holden Arboretum receives federal earmark to fund local urban reforestation efforts
The Holden Arboretum will receive $335,000 in Congressionally directed spending to help preserve and expand Northeast Ohio's tree canopy, thanks to Senator Sherrod Brown.
Keeping it clean: Metroparks embraces green infrastructure to naturally treat stormwater runoff
The Cleveland Metroparks has slated four 2023 projects that will naturally clean millions of gallons of stormwater and expand the park system's stewardship of our fragile fresh water.
 
Metroparks Trail Challenge: Menacing trees, meandering trails, a mysterious castle in North Chagrin
In the spirit of the Halloween season, FreshWater writer Erin O'Brien ventured out to Squire's Castle at the Cleveland Metroparks' North Chagrin Reservation to investigate whether the property is really haunted. Read what she discovered on this leg of the 2022 Trail Challenge.
Doan Brook, Metroparks to host two free outdoor family workshops
The Doan Brook Watershed Partnership is hosting two free family-friendly events this month that will get the entire family out for fun learning experiences in the autumn air.
Blazing trails: SCA Metroparks Trail Corps program involves youth in parks conservation
The Student Conservation Association Cleveland Metroparks Trail Corps program gets students and young adults involved in parks and land conservation efforts while they learn about environmental issues, build and repair trails along the Emerald Necklace, and spend a summer in the parks system.
Metroparks Trail Challenge: Kayaking and other water fun on Hinckley Lake
Writer Erin O'Brien has taken the Cleveland Metroparks Trail Challenge and has been chronicling her challenges. In her eighth installment, O'Brien traveled to the Hinkley Reservation to test her kayaking skills for the first time.  
Experience the world: What to expect at One World Day 2022
This weekend, the Cleveland Cultural Gardens will host the 76th Annual One World Day to celebrate and honor Cleveland’s diverse cultural and ethnic makeup that represnts more than 30 countries around the world.
Cleveland’s Cultural Gardens: A landscape of diversity, looking toward the future
As the Cleveland Cultural Gardens continues to expand, plans are in various stages to install 10 new gardens. John Grabowski and Lauren Pacini look to the future in this fourth and final installment of this four-part series. 
Cleveland’s Cultural Gardens: A landscape of diversity, the later years
The 1965 Hart-Celler Act widened patterns of U.S. immigration beyond Europe. With that pattern came the origins of more than a dozen Cultural Gardens that represent Asia and Eastern Europe. Lauren Pacini chronicles this period of Cleveland Cultural Gardens history in this third installment of this four-part series. 
Wild Ride: Asian Lantern Festival extended; nighttime biking event returns to close festival
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has extended the Asian Lantern Festival and is bringing back Wild Ride, a one-night event at the close of the festival when guests can ride their bikes through the Zoo for one last look at the illuminated lanterns.
Cleveland’s Cultural Gardens: A landscape of diversity, the middle years
Only five Cultural Gardens were created in the last part of the 20th Century, compared to the 14 created between 1930 and 1940. Lauren Pacini chronicles this period of Cleveland Cultural Gardens history in this second installment of this four-part series. 
Cleveland’s Cultural Gardens: A landscape of diversity, the early years
In 1916, The Cleveland Cultural Gardens was established in Rockefeller Park in University Circle when the Shakespeare Garden was dedicated. Lauren Pacini chronicles the history of the Botanical Gardens in this four-part series. 
Metroparks Trail Challenge: Garfield Park Reservation, an urban greenspace with a hidden waterfall
Despite the massive $7 million renovation project at Garfield Park Reservation, FreshWater's Erin O'Brien was able to navigate the park entrance, without using her GPS, and discover the history and the natural wonders this stretch of the Metroparks Trail Challenge had to offer.
Castles in the sand: Annual American Institute of Architects Sand Festival returns to Edgewater
After a two-year hiatus, the popular Sand Festival—with architects and designers executing their designs in sand at Edgewater Beach—returns this weekend. In addition to a volleyball tournament, there's even a sand pile this year for the amateurs to get involved.