Restoring the Cuyahoga River

Many partners along the 100-mile Cuyahoga River are working toward its recovery. About a fifth, or 20 miles, of the river lies within Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Everything that happens upstream impacts the national park. What happens within the national park, impacts everything downstream. The Cuyahoga flows into Lake Erie at Cleveland. As a result, it is part of the world’s largest supply of surface freshwater: the Great Lakes. Water is vital to life. It connects us.

People have been trying to clean up the Cuyahoga since the early 1900s. This work has a special place in the history of the environmental movement, especially the fight for clean water. The most famous—or infamous—chapter was the 1969 fire. Now, we are writing new chapters as we heal our river, its wildlife, and its cities.

Click below to explore the national park's river renewal projects, as well as the history of how conditions have changed.