To develop a field guide to teach children and adults the different varieties of birds that migrate to Dike 14. This field guide will provide children, teachers and families with a unique connection to outstanding natural resources located on Cleveland's lakefront.

Background - Dike 14
Dike 14 is an existing unique 88-acre wildlife haven adjacent to Gordon State Park/Cleveland Lakefront State Park at the northern end of Martin Luther King Boulevard just a few miles east of the heart of downtown Cleveland, Ohio.

Dike 14 is a former dredge disposal site. From 1979 to 1999 sediments dredged from the Cuyahoga River and Cleveland Harbor filled the Dike. It is now closed as a disposal site.

Over the years, Dike 14 has become naturalized and provides a unique opportunity for access to Lake Erie as well as access to a remarkable diversity of birds that either make their home in or migrate over the area, native Ohio plants and trees, and other wildlife.

Additional environmental testing and a risk assessment must be conducted because of the source of the dredged material. The City of Cleveland has recently received a grant to do this risk assessment. If the risk assessments show that controlled public access is safe for its environmental education usage, Dike 14 can be protected and promoted as a nature preserve to provide environmental education to residents and school children. This has been done successfully at a similar disposal site in Buffalo, NY called Times Beach.

Dike 14 is an amazing refuge for wildlife along an otherwise urban shoreline. During its history, Dike 14 has become a unique bird attraction on our city's lakefront. It has been called a "high performance" site because of the number and diversity of birds using the site. Birds use Dike 14 as a migratory stopover site because of its size, its strategic coastal location and the diverse wildlife habitats (grasslands, forest, meadows, mudflats, and wetlands). Dike 14 is located at the intersection of four migratory bird routes: Lake Erie, the shore of Lake Erie, the Cuyahoga River Valley and the Doan Brook Valley. There is no other good stopover site along a 60-mile expanse of shore; the closest other sites are Mentor to the east and Huron to the west. On October 2, 2004 Audubon Ohio designated Dike 14-Doan Brook as an Important Bird Area (IBA).

Over 281 species of birds have been documented at Dike 14 along with 29 butterflies, 26 native plant species, 16 mammals (coyote, deer, fox, mink, rabbits, raccoon) 9 native tree and shrub species, and 2 reptiles.

In order to maintain Dike 14 as a nature preserve interested parties have developed a field guide to teach children and adults the different varieties of birds that migrate to Dike 14. This field guide will provide children, teachers and families with a unique connection to outstanding natural resources located on Cleveland's lakefront.

This field guide takes on an even greater importance of educating the pubic to preserving this habitat due to limited lake access by the public. People cannot support what they not understand. As increased numbers of residents learn about the future vision by using the guide, this support will grow. This guide will gradually add to the vigorous support of the nature preserve vision and help secure Dike 14's place as an exception community land lab and ecological resource.

Ohio Sea Grant with its $1,500 contribution is providing a small portion of the overall cost of this project. Other contributors include: an $8,000 grant from The 1525 Foundation, $2,000 has been contributed by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and a $1,500 grant has been received from the Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District.