A former long-running family farm covering 87 acres in Copley Township is the future site of the 17th Summit Metro Park.
The park system announced on March 4 that it received the Boughton Road property through a land donation from Western Reserve Land Conservancy.
In 2018, Richard Boughton recounted the history of his family’s farm to the Summit County Farm Bureau. Ed and Mary Hull purchased the land in 1853. Later, their daughter, Maria, and her husband, Earl Boughton, purchased the property. According to a Facebook post, the family continued to farm the land until 2020.
In early 2022, a Boughton family member reached out to Andy McDowell, vice president of western field operations for Western Reserve Land Conservancy.
“Given the legacy of the family there, they did not want to see it become a housing development or any other form of development, and they definitely wanted to leave a lasting legacy for the township,” he said.
That same year, Western Reserve Land Conservancy entered into a purchase agreement with the Boughton family and began to raise funds to buy the land. Around that time is when Summit Metro Parks Executive Director Lisa King became aware of the deal and had a chance to walk the property.
They decided it would be a great spot for their next metro park. For King, the location was the biggest draw. King would like the park to open prior to Summit Metro Parks’ 2029 levy. When it opens, it will be Summit Metro Parks’ first park in Copley Township.
“Multiple directors before me always had this softly spoken goal of trying to provide a metro park for each community,” King said. “Many of those goals have been hit, but we’ve never had just the right opportunity in Copley. So this marks a pretty cool milestone for our park district.”
Restoration work to begin this year
While the majority of the 87 acres is farmland, McDowell said there’s also a wetland habitat on the property. Schocalog Run and Pigeon Creek also run through the area.
This will be the last year that the land is farmed. Soybeans will be planted in April and harvested in the fall. King said having a crop in the fields will help preserve the land and prevent invasive species from taking over while Western Reserve Land Conservancy focuses on restoration work in other areas of the property.
“We look at it more as a land management tool at this point than a farming tool,” McDowell said.
Also in April, Girl Scouts of America will plant about 1,200 saplings on the property. The restoration work will take about a year and a half, McDowell said. It will include planting trees, creating pollinator habitats and enhancing the wetlands. It will take several years, though, for the area to mature.
“You kind of give it a jump start but then let Mother Nature come in,” McDowell said. “So it’ll take some time for it to look like, ‘Wow, this has always been here.’”
After the restoration process, Summit Metro Parks will begin laying out the park. While official plans for the space are a ways off, King has plenty of ideas, from educational programming for kids to highlighting the history of the land and the family that farmed it.
“We like to tell those family stories especially, on the properties that we get,” King said. “So there’s a lot that we’re looking forward to here.”