Metroparks gives sneak peek at golf course land added to Secor site

Three unhappy Yelp reviews stand as a memorial to the no-longer-operational Spuyten Duyval Golf Course, which is now being absorbed into Secor Metropark.

The expansion may not help anyone’s golf swing, but it may help with flooding and provide other natural benefits.

Metroparks Toledo commissioners walked dirt trails — led by LaRae Sprow, Metroparks natural resources supervisor — on Wednesday to see the progress. Saplings were planted on either side of the trails to reforest what once was once the golf course and was acquired by the Metroparks in 2020.

“It's amazing when you do the right thing how nature responds,” Ms. Sprow said of the land’s rapid return to its premanicured form.

Susan Shaneck, former owner of the Spuyten Duyval Golf Course and the Cottonwood Creek Golf Course, which were both adjacent to Secor Metropark, ceased operations of the courses in 2019 and sold them to the Western Reserve Land Conservancy. Later Metroparks Toledo would purchase the 229 acres of golf course land from the conservancy with various EPA grants for $2.7 million.

“When you have a golf course, you are maintaining it for those purposes, and it's in pretty stark contrast to the natural landscape,” said Molly Luetke, a commissioner for Metroparks Toledo.

Regardless Ms. Sprow has been pleased with how quickly vegetation has come back to the area, despite a few stray golf balls. Ms. Sprow and her team have been working toward restoration of wetlands in the area, water quality improvement, stormwater retention, and, lastly, making the area open to the public.

“One of the reasons this is such a smart acquisition is that it expands on this park,” Ms. Sprow said.

Opening the land to the public is one of the last concerns for Metroparks Toledo, which doesn’t yet know when the expanded areas will be open to everyday parkgoers. When the area does open, Ms. Sprow said it would mainly be accessed through pedestrian dirt paths, similar to the ones used to give the commissioners a tour of the restoration efforts.

What Scott Savage, president of the board of park commissioners, said he hopes for the expansion is that in five to 10 years the new acquisition will blend seamlessly with the existing park.

To get there Ms. Sprow presented the key efforts, including 40 acres of reforestation; turning golf course ponds into usable wetlands; seeding 125 acres of former golf course with grasses, flowers, and sedges with native seeds from Blue Creek Nursery; and creating a two-stage ditch to expand natural habitats and floodplains.

Golf course ponds will be retrofitted with gentler slopes to encourage the propagation of waterfowl. And the introduction of a large ditch across the land is a simple solution that will help prevent flash flooding in the area.

Benchmark progress in renaturalizing the land includes 4,200 linear feet restored to a local stream, 54 acres of floodplain and wetlands that have also been restored, and 100 acres of prairies and savannas overtaking the golf course green.

Altogether, with a later acquisition of 30 acres of forested land purchased in 2022, Secor Metropark comes in at a whopping 867 acres, the third largest Metropark in the system.

“My hope is that we can tell the story locally, so that people can experience a restoration project of this stature,” Mr. Savage said, and added that he hopes the restoration effort will help attract funding locally and nationally when donors see how the Metroparks have stewarded the land.

Much is still left to be done to get the land back to its natural state, including plans to demolish a parking lot that served the former golf course’s clubhouse and banquet hall.