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Hundreds of cars travel on West Hines Hill Road in Boston Township daily, without realizing they’re passing the newest addition to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

The National Park Service is now the owner of 30 acres of land, which was surrounded entirely by the CVNP prior to it’s acquisition.

NPS didn’t recently acquire an interest in the land. In fact, NPS was interested in it as early as 2001. They were only able to buy the land recently because of the effort of the nonprofit Western Reserve Land Conservancy.

The WRLC was able to get the money from a settlement between the federal government and the City of Akron over violations of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act. They were then able to buy the property for $400,000 according to Summit County Tax Records, located on the county’s website.

When I spoke with Mary Pat Doorley, Public Affairs Officer for the CVNP, she explained to me that when land like the property is bought, CVNP is able to preserve it.

As an example, she mentioned the former Richfield Coliseum property, which was targeted as prime space for a mini mall. She explained that if NPS did not buy the land and a mini mall had gone up, the mall would have had a terrible impact on the nature and wildlife around the area.

For Broadcast Beat Reporting, I’m Patrick Shade.