BIG RUN PRESERVE

STATUS — Plan­ning Phase.

Two con­cepts were dis­played at an Open House on Octo­ber 20, 2011 for pub­lic input. These com­ments will be con­sid­ered as the final design is devel­oped. Con­struc­tion is sched­uled to begin in 2012.

HISTORY AND BACKGROUND
Big Run Pre­serve, named for the peren­nial stream that runs through it, is located near Hyatts Road and US 23/Columbus Pike. The first 60 acres of Big Run Pre­serve were pur­chased in 2004 with addi­tional acqui­si­tions over the fol­low­ing six years, bring­ing the total acreage to 183.

A trib­u­tary of the Olen­tangy River, Big Run cuts through lay­ers of Ohio and Olen­tangy shale, result­ing in deep ravines that include large and small con­cre­tions (solid­i­fied masses in sed­i­men­tary rock, usu­ally rounded and harder than the sur­round­ing rock).

The wood­lands are home to numer­ous res­i­dent and migra­tory birds includ­ing war­blers, thrushes, tan­agers, owls and wood­peck­ers. The site also pro­vides breed­ing habi­tat for sev­eral species of sala­man­ders includ­ing spot­ted, red-backed, Jef­fer­son, and two-lined, and many other species of wildlife.

PROJECT SCOPE
Site improve­ments will begin in 2012 with reha­bil­i­ta­tion of the exist­ing McKay Lodge (a for­mer church camp retreat that was later con­verted into a res­i­dence), park entrance drive improve­ments, util­ity mod­i­fi­ca­tions, park­ing near the Lodge, and some trails. Build­ing ren­o­va­tions will include pub­lic restrooms, a small nature dis­play high­light­ing the fea­tures of the site, mod­i­fi­ca­tions to the exist­ing kitchen to make it smaller, and a classroom/meeting space.

Pub­lic park­ing will be sit­u­ated in the two grassy open fields near the Lodge and will include a drop-off area and small acces­si­ble park­ing area.

To lessen impacts on Big Run, Preser­va­tion Parks is review­ing “green” park­ing lot strate­gies as an alter­na­tive to tra­di­tional paving sys­tems such as pavers, grass grid sys­tems, porous asphalt, and oth­ers, as well as best man­age­ment prac­tices for storm water man­age­ment includ­ing veg­e­ta­tive swales and the use of native plant­ing strips.

Addi­tional site improve­ments will be phased over the next sev­eral years.

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