Bill Yeck Park is treasured by hikers, bird watchers, and nature enthusiasts and harbors many rare species of plant life, providing a home to a variety of animals in every season (Cwpd). The park connects with other parks and wildlife areas creating a large area of green space that extends from St. Leonard Center to the Little Miami River. This photograph is Bill Yeck Park in its glory days with beautiful serene scenery among short and long hiking trails. As of right now the park has been under construction to create new paths. These new additions to the park will change the dynamic of the wildlife and the human population alike. The next generations of Centerville children will be wandering through the new Bill Yeck Park trails searching for beautiful fauna and wild creatures. Before this photograph was taken, I was a child of Centerville myself digging through the dirt looking for snakes and worms. Bill Yeck Park was originally named Sugar Valley Park. The name was changed in 1996 in honor of William S. Yeck, the Father of the Park District. Bill's main interest was in nature parks and he spent a lot of time in this park. He grew up in such surroundings in Akron, Ohio in the 1920s. His personal interests leaned toward the wonders of nature and the preservation of woods, lakes, meadows, and streams, but he put a great effort into the development of the neighborhood and community parks. While he was on the park board, the Park District grew to 43 parks with 893 acres of open space preserved for generations to enjoy. Bill was so dedicated to the open space concept that he put a conservation easement on his home property so the woods surrounding the house will be preserved forever and no development can ever occur. The park has seen many changes and alterations through the years. Across from the observation deck at Rooks Mill Lane is the former location of the J. Murphy sawmill. The sawmill was built around 1830. On the yellow trail is the Abner Stevens well and cabin site. The well's above-ground wall was rebuilt in 1984. These changes that the landscape has seen even before I was born have continuously affected the layout, area, and wildlife of the park. These types of changes remain today while the park is under construction to create new hiking trails. As the government and nature continue to shape the park in the future it will be different for each new generation. The park has lots of plant life, providing a home to a variety of animals in every season. Fossils from the Ordovician period can be found in Sugar Creek which flows through the park. The park connects with other parks and wildlife areas creating a large corridor of green space. This unbroken wooded area makes the park's wildlife abundant and varied. The park also has the Tri-Centennial Time Trail that was established during the Centerville-Washington Township bicentennial in 1996. The time trail is a tract of land representing 100 years of natural succession. Each year another unmown section is added, creating a trail that shows how a field turns into a forest. The park district offers environmental education programs for all ages throughout the year at Bill Yeck. The latest addition to the park is the former Victor and Mary Jane Smith property along Centerville Station Road. The 37-acre site includes a historic home, meadow and woods. New additions as well as the Time Trail are examples of how the ecology of the land can change over short amounts of time. The Centerville-Washington Park District initiated a trail master plan as a priority from the CWPD 2016-2019 Strategic Plan. The goal of the project was to analyze the environmental, ecological and experiential aspects of Bill Yeck Park’s trail system and develop recommendations for how it should evolve in future years. A Bill Yeck Park Trail Master Plan was written to summarize the site observations and public feedback and propose recommendations for the future of the park’s trail system. MAD scientist associates observed bank erosion issues along Sugar Creek and are exacerbated by stormwater runoff from surrounding residential development. They have also observed that dead and dying ash trees are common throughout the park, and while they offer valuable wildlife habitat, they should be removed from areas close to trails for safety and liability reasons. The Park District took recommendations from the public and scientists and proposed alterations to the current trail system in Bill Yeck Park. New drastic changes are happening to the park and it many places it feels unrecognizable. It is easy to be upset that the old trails that I have hiked many years will not longer be in place, but just as nature changes and adapts, so must the park system. Bill Yeck Park is home to a plethora of wildlife species. These animals depend on the plants in the forest to provide the energy they need to survive. In my time in the park I have seen many wildlife species make their home. I have seen animals like squirrels, turtles, fish, and snakes. Aside from the land and aquatic animals there is a large following of bird watching in Bill Yeck Park. Depending on the season one can see a range of beautiful wild birds including the Sandhill Crane which can be spotted in December. Another example is the Pine Siskin which has only been seen in March. There have been many unique birds spotted at Bill Yeck Park throughout the years. Recently I saw a group of wild turkeys walking through the woods alongside a trail I was on. They also have night hikes in the summer, and I remember hearing many owls calling into the night. Bill Yeck park has two areas where bird watches can watch from inside bird blinds that overlook a meadow. My mother was always into hiking. Nothing changed when she had two kids. I grew up hiking weekly with our best friends in a small “hiking club” that my mother and her best friend started for homeschool kids. She especially loved Bill Yeck for all the creek crossings and the paths that wind near the creek so the dog could splash away. I picked up her love of hiking and began to spend my time roaming the woods of Bill Yeck. One time when I was probably 8 we went during a time of heavy rains. Instead of taking the muddy trails we decided to creek instead. All of us went straight into waist deep water and trekked ahead down the unknown flooded creek. We hit parts of the creek where the water was a couple inches deep, to areas where the adults could not even touch the creek bottom. At a certain point my gym shoes soaked up so much water they were pulling me down into the cold water, forcing me to tread harder and faster just to stay afloat.
My 12th birthday I took my dog and a brown bag lunch with a cupcake. It was a perfect summer day and the park treated me with many animal sightings. When I first got there, I was messing around in the creek when I heard my dog start barking behind me. I turned around and saw a large white tail deer peeking out of the forest edge. Behind her were two baby deer adorned in white spots. My 10 pound Pomeranian was trying to take on an animal 10x her size and being very noisy about doing so. The deer didn’t seem to mind. She stood there looking at me, she blinked a couple of times, and then vanished back into the woods followed closely by her two babies. Me and my dog continued our hike and we I began to look for a place to eat. After climbing up a steep hill I needed to sit down and take a break. I chose a seat on the very edge of a cliff that overlooked the creek beneath. From the cliff I watched the woods beneath. Squirrels were everywhere running through the canopy and dropping leaves as they went. I could see the meadow on the other side if the creek as well. The meadow provides places for Ohio native wildflowers to thrive and live in peace. Over the many years I have been visiting the park I have always stopped at one specific spot. Near the start of the trails from the Rooks Mill entrance but right before the first stone path creek crossing is a large sandy creek bed. The sandy bed wraps around the creek at one it’s widest and deepest parts. The deep water turns into a shallow waterfall that stretches completely across the creek bed. Under the rocks of the shallow waters you can find lots of biodiversity. Besides the fish and the snails that coat the rocks, underneath the rocks you will find salamanders. Dozens of these little dark purple salamanders can be found under the rocks. Along with the salamanders you are also likely to find crawfish. Some too small to even see clearly, and others and some are powerful enough to pinch hard enough to leave a mark. When I was young this was already where we took a snack break on our group hikes. I preferred to spend this time finding salamanders. Just recently this area has been under construction. I went once to find all the trees in this area cut down, and the dead logs that laid across the stream were moved as well. I followed up and went back once that part of the trail was opened again, and it has completely changed. I believe that this was an area of high bank erosions from the surrounding suburbs. The landscape now is field like, no trees growing near the stream and the stream is wrested into place with large boulders and gravel. And on the embankment around the creek, they are attempting to grow grass in the new sunny area. It is quite a difference in scenery from the area where I used to take snack break and catch animals. Bill Yeck is a large park that has been going under many ecological changes in the recent months in ways that I might not understand as a bystander. Looking in from the outside it is easy to see the destruction in the old paths and the old trails. Humans have impacted these woods in many ways and the wildlife has been forced to adapt every time. Now with the new changes they are rolling out everyone must adapt to the new environment. Many of the measures they are taking are based around restoring the area and should be better for the land and the animals. It is our job to adapt and change to better respect the land and the wildlife. I will miss the sandy bank where I spend hours hunting amphibians, but just like the land has been forced to changed due to the presence of humans, it is my turn to change as well. Humans are constantly forcing change in local ecosystems even without trying to. The park was being irreversibly changed years before they enacted new trails. These new trails and new creek crossings will leave a lasting impact not only on the ecosystem but also on the people hiking. They will have new favorite spots where they can take a break and have a snack, or a new fishing location that wasn’t there before. My experiences at Bill Yeck have impacted me in a great way, these bittersweet memories are a reminder that nature is always changes and humans should not claim to own any part of woods. We are simply guests visiting for a day. Works Cited “Bill Yeck.” CentervilleWashington Park District, www.cwpd.org/parks/bill-yeck/. “Washington History Serving Centerville and Washington Township, OH.” Centerville, www.centervillewashingtonhistory.org/people/william-yeck.
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