Adventures in the Cuyahoga Bioregion

Book Review: The Greater Cleveland Environment Book, David Beach and co-authors, EcoCity Cleveland, 1998, 336 pages, $14.95

By Lee E. Batdorff

Suppose you determined that environmental Armageddon was upon us in the next decade, and the possibility of your survival was only through learning from a select few books. What would you select?

A good adventure book. Along with the Joy of Cooking, the Boy Scout Handbook, the Holy Bible and Scripture, the Dialectics of Confucius, and a Soldier of Fortune magazine survivalist's manual, I would also include: The Greater Cleveland Environment Book.

David Beach, director of EcoCity Cleveland, is the leader of a cadre of Ohio writers that produced this volume that is both a good adventure book and an important document for our future. If you want to explore exotic locales in the lush Cuyahoga Bioregion, this is a must read.

Once you've read it, you will realize just how precious and unique our region is while learning through the discovery of "spiritual places," "sacred ground," and "corners of wilderness," within a few miles of your home.

The book harnesses many voices to describe Turtle Island (North America) and to trek along our watersheds and shoreline. Beach and co-authors tell of seeds of change in our land that are represented in the growing conservation movement, the growing volunteer water quality monitoring programs, and the growing number of local organic farmers.

A broad scope of local geography, geology, history and how-to tips for proper treatment of humans and the environment are included. The book offers the adventure of local folks taking control of their futures, as well as numerous adventure stories.

Co-writer Ben Hitchings describes the wretched lives of the original surveyors of northeast Ohio. They went on strike because of poor conditions and pay. Many of them died in their work. Moses Cleaveland settled it by granting them land in one township, which they named Euclid in honor of the Greek mathematician who inspired their craft.

Joe Hannibal, describes how we got our "lucky stones." Jim LaRue discusses sustainable building practices. Laurel Hopwood provides a how-too manual of nontoxic cleaning and pest control and lawn chemical cautions. Fred Oswald discusses environmentally responsible investing. There is Christine Craycroft on "Cultivating a local food system" and Mary Kelsey's "Eating regionally: A winter's tale of good food," and Mitch Neuger on "Urban gardening."

Off in the "great mother sponge of Geauga County," a natural event startles canoe passengers on a quiet night in the wilderness along the upper Cuyahoga River. Bob Faber, a naturalist from Hiram who lead them there, whispers to the shaken passengers, "a magic night."

Just as the rigors of the trek through the beauty of our bioregion and the gaining of knowledge of the risks to it accrue, Beach provides an occasional striking phrase or quote. "The rich people protect the river the old fashion way…Think about the hard and dirty life of a raindrop in Northeast Ohio…I was tired of being against things and wanted to be for things…I had no idea that there was all this life in the river!"

Failings of this volume are few. Many people are concerned about chlorine in city drinking water. Is city water really more heavily chlorinated the closer to the treatment plant? If this means anything, what should we do? This volume does not address this popular question.

There are no footnotes. This may make it hard for someone to argue for certain points made in the book. Beach can be forgiven for this lapse, for including them could easily double the size of the book and substantially increase the price. Also, it was hard for this reader to figure out some of the geography of the watershed maps.

Even so, they are fascinating. "What are those?" my barber said as he looked over my shoulder at a map in the Environment Book in my lap. "These are the watersheds of the five rivers of the Cuyahoga Bioregion. The Black, the Rocky, the Cuyahoga, the Geauga and the Grand Rivers," I said.

"I've never seen that before," he said. "That's amazing!"

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NEO SSEP release of January 17, 1999 - Lee Batdorff, author and webmaster, 216-321-9152: neossep_ohsc@adva.com