Our Parks
Cleveland Heights is blessed with over 140 acres of historic parks in the Doan Brook and Dugway watersheds, as well as in all compass points of the city.
Dugway Brook Parks
The Dugway Brook watershed, occupying 50% of the city, begins upstream at Cain Park and connects to Schoolhouse Park, Cumberland Park, and Forest Hill Park. The Dugway Brook chain of parks was built over the west branch of the Dugway Brook that runs diagonally across the geographical center of our 8-square mile city.
Cain Park 1938
Superior Schoolhouse 1859
Cumberland Park 1927
Forest Hill Park 1942
Doan Brook Parks
The Doan Brook chain of parklands at Shaker Lakes, owned by the City of Cleveland, is leased for management to both Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights and is known as the Shaker Parklands established 1896.
Parks in all compass points of the city
The parks of Cleveland Heights encompass 145 acres of mixed woodland, streambanks, and even shorelines. In all four seasons, we can see many of the resident and migratory species found in northern Ohio. Exploring our parks with binoculars and fellow birders is an adventure in any month.
The birding community today often records sightings on EBird (Cornell University Lab of Ornithology’s central database of sightings) – a free and relatively easy to use app for smartphones and other devices. “Hotspots” are named sites on EBird where birders record both species and numbers of individual birds seen. Then other birders can review what’s been seen and when.
Almost all of our Cleveland Heights Parks are listed as EBird Hotspots:
Cumberland Park and Public Pool
Forest Hill Park – Cleveland Heights
Shaker Lakes – Lower Shaker Lake
Go to EBird.org and explore Hotspots – search for one of our parks to visit. See what other birders have recorded there. Then when you go hiking in that park, keep track of the species and numbers of each species of the birds you see. Enter it as a “checklist” on EBird. Your data is a valuable addition to the growing bird database for our parks.
(There’s a free self-guided course on the EBird website to help you get started.)
Comments and suggestions please – email John Barber
