Across the Atlantic, Two Parks Reimagine Preservation

As public funding for conservation shrinks, Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the United Kingdom’s Dartmoor National Park are learning from each other. 

For both parks, the collaboration fills a gap that shrinking budgets can’t. Instead of sharing funds, they’re sharing solutions and comparing what works and what might transfer across borders. 

The five-year partnership marks the first time the National Park Service has partnered with a UK-based national park.

The agreement aims to exchange ideas on habitat restoration, environmental education and community engagement.

Philanthropy

For both parks, the collaboration fills a gap that shrinking budgets can’t. Instead of sharing funds, they’re sharing solutions and comparing what works and what might transfer across borders. 

The five-year partnership marks the first time the National Park Service has partnered with a UK-based national park.

The agreement aims to exchange ideas on habitat restoration, environmental education and community engagement.

The idea took nearly three and a half years to become official, said Peter Harper, who served as a member of the Dartmoor National Park Authority until this year.

“When I went out for the signing of the agreement, we were blown away by the amount of work being done to restore nature in Cuyahoga Valley. It gave us hope that things can be done differently,” Harper said.

Philanthropy

The Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP) is a nonprofit partner that supports trail restoration, youth programs and volunteer projects. It has become a model for how philanthropy can keep public lands thriving when federal funding falls short.

“Our entire reason for existing is to be additive to the work of the National Park Service,” said Dan Blakemore, Vice President of Philanthropy for the Conservancy. “We operate everything from the Environmental Education Center to volunteer projects that get thousands of trees in the ground each year, really with the goal of upgrading the biodiversity of the park so wildlife and everything else have the best possible habitat to thrive.”

While the federal government provides core funding, the Conserv

ancy supplements it through donations, retail operations and event rentals.

“Philanthropy is still a significant part of our revenue mix,” Blakemore said. “It can be successful for many park partners like us, but it’s not a cure-all for everyone.”

CVNP’s location close to Cleveland and Akron gives it a unique advantage.

“Other parks don’t have the same culture of philanthropy in their surrounding community that I think we do,” Blakemore said. “Someone could roll out of bed in Hudson, drive 15 minutes, hike for an hour, go home, shower, and head to work. You can’t do that at Yosemite.”

Dartmoor is now creating its own friends group, modeled partly after the Conservancy, to cultivate community giving as U.K. government cuts squeeze park budgets.

At Dartmoor, a 50% funding cut over the past decade has left fewer staff. Climate change adds to a growing workload.

“We’re seeing very dry summers now, with real trouble from wildfires across the moors,” Harper said. “Then, in winter, we get heavy rainfall and erosion, especially where visitors step off the paths to

avoid mud.”

Education

Both parks share a strong commitment to education for all ages, said January Miller, Vice President of Education for CVNP’s Conservancy.

“What we strive really hard to do is to make sure that every person who comes out to the park finds their access point,” she explained. “Even if a kid doesn’t see themselves as a scientist, or maybe science isn’t their biggest interest, there is an access point for them, because this is their national park.”

Through CVNP’s Environmental Education Center, a 500-acre campus that welcomes about 10,000 students each year, Miller’s team blends outdoor learning with science, art and civic engagement.

“Both parks put environmental education at the center of what we do,” Blakemore said. “Dartmoor runs similar programs on their farms, even busing children in from London.”

The two parks are now working to develop virtual programming acr

oss the Atlantic, Miller said.

“This is our own little way to keep that allyship strong, to make this connection between the parks and learn from each other,” he said.

 After COVID-19, both parks saw education as a form of community recovery.

“People had become very isolated,” Harper said. “I realized that if people actually talk to each other, you can learn a huge amount. We wanted to see whether we were facing the same challenges, and we were.”

Miller reflected that the pandemic reminded people how essential nature is to well-being. When the outdoors thrives, she added, “we are healthier as humans.”

Teachers noticed it, too.

“They would see their students in a different light when they would come out to the Environmental Ed Center,” Miller said. “It really tightened those bonds, and there was a lot of healing that happened in nature.”

Environmental and historical conservation

The partnership has already inspired exchange trips, shared researc

h and ideas for virtual classrooms connecting students and teachers across continents. The Conservancy’s team is now exploring ways to feature Dartmoor’s “artisan trail” concept, which celebrates farmers and craftspeople, in the Ohio park’s own programming.

Students experience conservation firsthand through hands-on projects in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Miller said her team involves young visitors in tree planting, invasive species removal and other restoration efforts.

Miller said the team is also developing new lessons around the Cuyahoga River, including efforts to clean it up.

“We’re even getting more and more involved in the civic part of that story, not just the environmental story, and what it took to make all of this happen,” Miller said.

CVNP’s conservation work extends beyond wildlife and waterways to include the preservation of historic structures that tell the story of Ohio’s industrial past.

“It’s not just about preserving history for the sake of history, it’s about making sure we’re telling the full American story,” Blakemore said.

For example, after purchasing the former Brandywine Golf Course, the team discovered records of African-American recreation in the area, once buried in the valley’s landscape.

“We want to make sure those stories are elevated and told as we activate that land,” Blakemore said.

Miller emphasized that understanding the park means understanding the people who shaped it.

“The human stories and the environmental stories are inextricably linked,” she said. “It’s really important to tell the stories of the people who worked really hard to make change and to tell the stories of the neighborhoods that were more affected and why.”

Looking ahead, Miller said the next generation gives her hope.

“They’re bright, they ask great questions, and they’re so civically minded,” she added. “When people worry about the future, I look at them and think, they’ve got good ideas. They’ll go on and do good from here.”