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Cuyahoga Valley National Park Handed $14 Million to Revitalize the Banks of the Cuyahoga River

The Cuyahoga Valley National Park shared that they have been given $14 million. The money was given for the park to revitalize the banks of the Cuyahoga River.

The money was given by Great American Outdoors Act funding to support access to recreational experiences in the park. Cuyahoga Valley National Park shared the news in a press release on the park’s website.

According to the release, work is expected to begin this October, and go until early 2025.

“The towpath trail and the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad are centerpieces of the park experience that are very close to the Cuyahoga River. Being that close to the river offers beautiful views, but it also presents constant and costly maintenance challenges,” Lisa Petit, Cuyahoga Valley National Park superintendent said in the press release. “This project will allow us to proactively manage infrastructure that provides safe and enjoyable recreational experiences while we protect and enhance our most important natural resource, the Cuyahoga River.”

A design company will work on the project, and once the designs are done, more work will be done. This includes clearing the riverbank, placing rip rap and live stake, regrading, and planting native vegetation to stabilize the soil.

“CVNP is consistently one of the most visited national park sites in the country, and park visitation contributes to the local economy. In 2021, 2.6 million visitors spent an estimated $48.7 million in local gateway regions while visiting the park. The spending is estimated to have supported over  681 jobs, $26.5 million in labor income, $41.9 million in value added and $75.1 million in economic output in local gateway economies,” the release reads.

Yellowstone National Park Looks to Reopen in About 2 Weeks

Another national park has also been going through some struggles. Yellowstone National Park recently suffered a flood and a wildfire.

The flood, dating back to June, has left the park and park officials awry. The park had to close down several entrances throughout the summer. Even when some reopened, the park’s visitation numbers were still very low compared to past years.

After dealing with that, the park has also been working to reopen completely. They aredealing with the damages the flood left. However, their self-made deadline is on October 15, just over two weeks.

Park superintendent Cam Sholly spoke to MTN News about the situation.

“The fifteenth is still doable. We’re always said we’ll continue to do work after the fifteenth, but we want to make sure it’s safe,” Sholly said.

He continued: “In a normal project, you’ve got normally years to do something like this. You’ve got years of planning and engineering that went into it. And, you know, we did that in weeks.”

The park has high hopes that it will be reopened by the deadline.