Sanctuaries
The Audubon Society of Greater Cleveland has responsibility for four nature preserves in the watershed of the Chagrin River. Three sanctuaries are in the City of Aurora:
The fourth sanctuary is in Willoughby (Lake County):
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The Aurora Sanctuary
and State Nature Preserve
896 E. Pioneer Trail, Aurora, Ohio
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James Fulton Pond at the Aurora Sanctuary |
Greater Cleveland Audubon’s Aurora Sanctuary is
located north of Pioneer Trail Rd., near Page Rd. in Aurora (download
PDF: Aurora location map). It was purchased
in 1941 by our predecessor organization The Cleveland Bird Club. It
is, we believe, the oldest bird sanctuary in Ohio. The former owner
of the property, the Smythe family, intended to develop it in the
1920’s, but the depression forced abandonment of the plan, and
The Cleveland Bird Club actually bought the property from the Cleveland
Trust Co. Biological Assets: The bulk of the 165 acre preserve is in mature beech-maple forest, although two field areas are preserved from an earlier time when the property was partially farmed. Approximately half of the property has been left in an entirely natural state, without trails or other man-made alterations of any kind. A trail system on the western portion of the property is about two miles in length and lends access to a large variety of habitat types. The sanctuary is a State Nature Preserve dedicated in 1999 (more information), that is open to the public. A sanctuary map appears below. There are four ponds on the property. The largest, James Fulton Pond, is currently 10-15 acres in size. An observation blind overlooking Fulton pond was constructed in 2003. An original smaller pond was expanded in the early 1950’s by the additionof a cement dam, and |
it grew further in the 1960’s and ‘70’s as beaver returned to the area and raised the dam. Beaver have also created a small pond adjoining Fulton Pond on its east side, and the area of this pond is noted for its population of both Closed Bottle Gentian and Smaller Fringed Gentian, the latter of which is State listed as an endangered wildflower. A smaller pond at the northwest corner of the preserve, the Hamann Pond, is about 3 acres in size and was built by Society members in the early 1950’s. A fourth small pond is entirely natural, the result of glacial activity. Due to the many habitat types in this sanctuary it clearly has
great potential as an educational resource. Management problems
in the Aurora Sanctuary include protecting its integrity from growing
development pressures on neighboring land and dealing with one invasive
plant in particular, European Buckthorn. |
A central feature of the Aurora Sanctuary is a deep glacial gorge which carries a stream called Hickory Creek that drains the wetlands associated with our Blanche Katherine Novak Sanctuary to the north and merges with the Aurora Branch of the Chagrin River at the western edge of the property (see maps). Hickory Creek is noted for its purity, accounted for by the fact that it has historically been isolated from farming or development activities.
The Aurora Sanctuary is also noted for historical artifacts that have recently caused the Aurora Landmark Commission to seek to landmark the property. They include an 1820’s wagon road that forms the sanctuary’s western boundary, bridge artifacts from the same period, and a substantial ditch originally intended as the right-of-way of a never completed railroad dating from the 1850’s known as “The Clinton Airline”.
Lord
of the Aurora Sanctuary
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