Cuyahoga Valley National Park staff has not recovered from last year’s federal budget cuts and layoffs, according to Greg Peckham, CEO of Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Conservancy, a nonprofit strategic partner to CVNP, now has more workers than the national park itself. The National Park Service has seen a 40% decrease in staffing overall over the last 15 years, Peckham said. Meanwhile, Cuyahoga Valley National Park saw more than 3 million visitors last year, a 4% annual increase, according to the National Park Service.
“They’ve been put under a lot of different pressure … We are having to figure out how to work smarter together because of the financial pressures that are coming from the federal cuts,” Peckham said.
On Jan. 28, 2025, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management offered a deferred resignation program to full-time federal employees. Those who accepted the deferred resignation were placed on administrative leave until Sept. 30, 2025.
Many employees at CVNP resigned, and those vacancies have not been filled.
However, Conservancy has taken on new roles to support CVNP in the past year and become a “community development organization” for the national park, Peckham said.
Conservancy is focusing on visitor experience and improving the national park for the communities surrounding it.
“What’s good for the locals is good for tourists,” Peckham said. “If we make environments where local people want to spend time, spend their money, invest, then ... it’s a great place for visitors too.”
In 2021, Conservancy acquired the Brandywine Golf Course in CVNP and transferred 198 of its 213 acres to the National Park Service in 2022.
Conservancy is using the space to design a “park within a park,” Peckham said.
“We’re developing what we’re calling ‘The River Center,’ which is probably going to be about a 12,000-square-foot front door to the park,” Peckham said. “It will be a community space where you’ll be able to kayak in and grab a beer or a sandwich.”
Conservancy is also creating boardwalks and outlooks, and designing new trails on the former golf course, now called Oxbow Meadows.
“It’s also an incredible place to tell a story … about the historic displacement of communities,” Peckham said. “We know a lot about the history of the native tribes that were living here and also the Black recreation in Cleveland and Akron. During the times of segregation, before this was a national park, families were (using CVNP) as places to recreate, to celebrate, to have great times.”
In the future, Peckham said Conservancy and CVNP are looking forward to “capturing the potential” of the waterfronts and connecting with the communities in Cleveland and Akron.
“The hallmark of success will be that people in our cities view this as their national park,” Peckham said. “What I think we’re trying to do at the Conservancy is change the narrative so that people think about this national park as this park of the future.”
