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Nature knows no boundaries, but
occasionally a little rerouting is
necessary. That’s when the Friends
of Lower Lake step in.
The volunteer group meets Sunday
mornings, weather permitting, at the
Canoe Club site on South Park Boulevard.
Their primary goal is to remove invasive
plant species from Lower Lake and
replace them with plants that are native
to the region.
“Sometimes we remove invasives
and native plants come up after having
been suppressed for so many years,” says
co-chair Peggy Spaeth, who, along with
co-chair John Barber, organized the group
in 2017 to participate in a National Public
Lands Day for the Cuyahoga Soil and
Water District. About a dozen volunteers
make up the core group, most of whom
have been involved since the inception.
“We try to make it so people can
have a little ownership of a particular task
because we’re all at different ages and
abilities,” says Spaeth. “Some people like to
work with saws, some like to sit and pull
weeds, so there’s something for everybody
to do. Our last major work session was
just after the election. It was a beautiful
weekend and we had 33 people show up,
which is the highest ever. People working
with us have said they’re so grateful for a
project where they’re feeling like they’re
doing something positive for the world
and the environment.”
Barber says some species are
extremely aggressive and require
continual removal. “Unfortunately, we
have bragging rights to almost all of the
invasive species on Ohio’s banned plant
lists, like Japanese Honeysuckle, Glossy
and Common Buckthorn, Privet, and
Japanese Knotweed.”
6 SPRING 2021 | WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
Friends of Lower Lake:
Biodiversity Defenders
Some of the invasive plants were
brought in from Europe and Asia for
commercial purposes and outcompeted
some of the native species. The oldest
invasive tree the Friends found is the
white mulberry, which was brought
here by the Shakers so they could
harvest silkworms for the production of
stockings. “So the problem with letting
nature take its course is that we lose
biodiversity,” says Spaeth.
The group conducts periodic checks
Top: Friends of Lower Lake volunteers.
Above: John Barber and Peggy Spaeth,
co-chairs of Friends of Lower Lake for
the Doan Brook Watershed Partnership.
of newly-planted areas to make sure
invasives have not repopulated. “We also
do live staking, which is the planting of
shrubbery cuttings along the perimeter
of the lake,” says Spaeth. Last fall, The
Holden Arboretum donated nearly 300
surplus small trees and shrubs to plant along the lake’s perimeter.
“There’s also a lot of trail maintenance and improvement,” says Spaeth. Maintenance
of Lower Lake is a joint effort between Shaker Heights, Cleveland Heights, and the City
of Cleveland.
Spaeth points out that the work of the Friends is not completely about salvaging.
During the fall of 2019, they organized a tree-planting event around Lower Lake following
the removal of a 300-year-old White Oak that was downed during a severe thunderstorm.
“There are a number of very old oak trees in the area, and we were able to
measure their girth and estimate their age. There are also a lot of remnants of some
really beautiful all-native trees and forest and understory wildflowers. The area is not
completely compromised; we’re just trying to bring it along and improve the habitat.”
It is Barber’s hope that the efforts of the Friends of Lower Lake inspire the creation
of more Friends groups in Shaker as well as other municipalities. “Our goal all along has
been to spin off other volunteer groups, like Friends of Horseshoe Lake. We envision
Friends groups up and down the watersheds on the East Side.”
If you are interested in learning more or volunteering, send an email to
FriendsofLowerLake@gmail.com.
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