Life
All Over
Valley
View aka “The Bottoms”
Cathy
Gatch
"The Bottoms" are
the last 151 acres of undeveloped river valley land in Milford. This
area is along the East Fork of the Little Miami River, between the
Finley Ray athletic fields and South Milford Road. This
is primarily flood plain land that naturally cleans storm water for
people downstream and, by leaving it open, provides flood relief
for people upstream.
Valley View Foundation
is a citizen-based non-profit organization working with the City
of Milford to raise funds to purchase the land and to maintain it
as a public park. There are also plans to use it as an outdoor campus
for environmental sciences, history and archeology.
Specifically there
are plans to restore the highly eroded riverbank, and at least a
200 ft. buffer of additional riparian (river) area. Returning this
portion of the property to native trees will greatly reduce further
bank erosion and help to improve water quality. Eventually, the plan
is to recreate a prairie environment that existed here before European
settlement. These tall clumpy grasses are incredible habitat for
wildlife of all kinds. There are potential sites for wetland restoration
as well.
The whole area
within the confluence of the East Fork of the Little Miami and the
Little Miami rivers was populated by Native American tribes for about
10,000 years. Although parts of the Bottoms are on the archeological
register, there has never been a sustained archeological study of
the area.
The history of
European settlement in the area has roots back to the Revolutionary
War. And, of course, there is also the fossil evidence of pre-history
that goes back before the birth of mankind.
For more information
or to get involved, visit Valley
View Campus.
Cathy Gatch runs
The Milford Pottery, and is involved in many community organizations.
She is a regular contributor to milford-miami.com.
Comments
or questions? Send
email
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