A Beavers tale: Lessons Learned at Cuyahoga Valley NPS

Growing up, my mother was instrumental in our family of eight taking camping trips each summer. By the time I was in 4th grade, I had been in 42 states, Canada and Mexico, and had never been on a plane. We explored, hiked, and camped in state parks, national parks, and forests, traversing the country, with a pop-up camper and a paper road map to navigate our journeys. 

These adventures created my love for science, nature, and the outdoors, ultimately leading to my choice to become a civil engineer, graduating with an emphasis in water resources and environmental pollution control. As an environmental consultant, I spent the first decade of my career assessing Superfund sites and other contaminated properties, and later working with industrial clients to keep them in compliance with environmental, health and safety regulations and to prevent them from negatively impacting human health, and the environment. 

For the past five summers, I have been blessed to explore the country with my own children, traversing this great land in my Jeep Grand Cherokee. So far, we have visited 45 states and Canada in our “summer tours,” exploring over 90 National Park System (NPS) sites, and many other fabulous national treasures. Each park, preserve, historic site, battlefield, and seashore means so much to me in so many different ways. There is the beauty and grandeur of the mountains, canyons, and forests, the awesome expanses of our national seashores, badlands, and grasslands, and the incredible history of our nation…the good, the bad, and the ugly. I consider it critical that our children learn about the great beauty, diversity, and history of our country as they grow, becoming stewards of our Earth, preserving and protecting our culture and environment for themselves and future generations.

The park lies within a portion of a river and canal system vital to Ohio’s and our nation’s commerce during the Industrial Revolution, a time in our nation’s history that saw explosive growth in the economy, population, and, tragically, environmental contamination.

I chose this site for our summer adventures as I knew the story of the Cuyahoga River, how it burned over a dozen times, and how the last fire in 1969 is often credited with creating the final spark that ignited the passage of the Clean Water Act of 1972. The 1969 Cuyahoga River fire was actually not the worst of this riverʼs fires, no photo exists of this fire, and the Cuyahoga River was not the only river in the country that historically burned due to industrial contamination. In fact, by 1969, throughout the country, efforts had already begun to clean up Americaʼs waterways; however, this final fire on the Cuyahoga River underscored the need for continued progress.  

Just as we need industry for a strong economy, we need our businesses to be strong environmental, health, and safety leaders, operating not simply to comply with regulations, but to go beyond, becoming part of their communities, considering future generations, and protecting their own employees and the environment, as well as their neighbors. We need to be reminded of the river fires of the past, showing our children who have never experienced how polluted our country was photos from America’s past, when the smell of oil was considered the smell of wealth, not poor health. In a country where 1,341 Superfund sites, an estimated 450,000 brownfield sites, and numerous state-lead environmental cleanup sites still exist, we must constantly remind ourselves that preventing environmental catastrophes and protecting our workers and communities is paramount, not only to human health and the environment, but to the nation’s economy.

I originally published this story in 2018 as part of my work on Site Auditing: The Environmental Assessment of Properties. I wanted to highlight the resilience of our nation, and the "WHY" we have environmental regulations.  

I was alive when the Cuyahoga River burned; many people living today were not.  When I ask younger generations if they know what a Superfund Site is, most say "no."  What one does not know, one does not know.  When I ask folks my age and older, who lived in Los Angeles or the Northeast where the skies were brown and air quality visibly contaminated, they "get" why we have regulations. It's still hard though, for them to understand the value of prevention in a world where everything costs so much...why pay for something that hasn't happened?

Today, our contamination is mostly unseen.  Chemicals in our drinking water or air cannot be traced to a single source, and our government does not have jurisdiction to regulate them.  Many people do not want to be regulated, and those that do, do not understand the time and expense it takes to go through the regulatory process, and then to enforce the regulations.  

I pray for our country to unite in love.  To take care of each other.  To care for earth, our shared home. I invite you to be intensional about how you live your life, leading with love of God and others. Together, we can make a difference. What's healthy for you, is healthy for our earth, the awesome garden home for which we were charged to be good stewards to all of God's creations.