West Creek Preservation Committee

“The organization amended its bylaws in august 2024, to add a new purpose section under article ii clarifying the organization's scope of activities related to the protection and stewardship of natural resources, promotion of sustainable and resilient communities, and support for renewable resources. Corresponding article and section references were renumbered to reflect this addition. No substantive governance or operational provisions were changed.”

“The form 990 is presented to finance staff, executive director and finance committee to review and is then revised as needed, following which a recommendation of approval is made to the board. The board then has final review of the 990 and approves it for filing.”

“Each year, all board and staff members are required to review and pledge compliance with the organization's conflict of interest policy. Among other things, the policy makes it clear that all decisions of the board members and employees are made solely on the basis of a desire to promote the best interest of the organization and the public good. The conflict of interest statement submitted annually by board members and staff requires board members and staff to identify to the best of their knowledge affiliations with organizations that may be potentially related to the financial or other substantive operations of the organization. Board members and staff are also asked to identify circumstances involving either themselves, or a member of their extended family, that may be construed as a conflict of interest. The organization's employees also ensure that there are no conflicts of interest when considering the engagement of a vendor. If a potential or actual conflict is identified, appropriate steps are taken to both assess the nature of the conflict and, subsequently, to ensure that the issue is mitigated. The board and organization take appropriate steps to mitigate the conflict of interest and uphold the letter and spirit of the policy.”

“The executive committee of the board annually evaluates the performance of the executive director. Compensation is based on performance and comparison to other area mission-comparable organizations of similar size. This compensation is a component of the budget, which is reviewed and approved by the board as a whole.”

“The organization's current governing documents, form 990, conflicts of interest policy, and financial statements are made available to the public upon request. The public inspection version of the form 990 can also be found on several publicly accessible websites.”

“Our mission is to enrich the lives of all people in northeast ohio by conserving natural habitats, restoring the ecological value of our region's lands and waters, and expanding opportunities to connect people from all cultures to experience nature and discover our great outdoors.”

“Volunteer hours donated for landscaping, property upkeep, and other services totalled 1,507 in 2024.”

“West creek conservancy's role in the community and region is unique, as it takes a collaborative watershed approach to land conservation, stream/wetland restoration, and trail/greenway development. Northeast ohio has a storied history of development and has often been a poster child for environmental progress. Where a river's fires and pollution were once national front-page news, we now have one of the most visited national parks in the country, a vast network of metroparks and park districts, a 100-mile water trail, a handful of nationally significant 'scenic rivers', a regionally collaborative network of watershed groups, activation and public improvements along many riverine and coastal areas, and story after story of habitat and wildlife recovery. Even with such progress, we still have much left to do west creek is a hybrid land conservation and watershed-restoration organization that focuses on myriad activities: acquiring land (including high quality and completely degraded areas); restoring ecological functionality (encompassing streams, wetlands, open meadows, forest lands, as well as brownfields); retrofitting the built environment (often removing unsustainable development, reclaiming natural areas, and installing green infrastructure or other stormwater control mechanisms); building trail/greenway networks in order to connect people to these special places; and engaging municipalities, stakeholders, policy makers, and other partners to implement sustainable practice and policy. This is what we refer to as a "headwaters-to-confluence approach." west creek regularly fills a niche: helping partners acquire land, possibly on an interim basis, and sometimes pre-acquiring before the opportunity is lost. We pride ourselves on our partnerships and our collaborative approach. One of the largest and most recent examples is a project referred to as irishtown bend - a more than 23 acre reclamation initiative in the heart of downtown cleveland along a half mile of the cuyahoga river, which made significant strides in 2024. West creek orchestrated a series of complex transactions to gain ownership of the area so that its partners could accelerate and implement a truly transformative and critical project. Our role helped catalyze a nearly 100m project that will change the face of the river and provide much-needed urban park, greenspace, and outdoor recreation opportunities to a dense urban community. With a small staff, our watershed and conservation services stretch beyond a dozen counties in northeast ohio. Employing our partnership approach, we are assisting richland county park district, to create and restore a 100- acre area within clear fork river, including to provide access to nearly three miles of the river; assisting summit metro parks to expand conservation along the cuyahoga river, adding another 57 acres & 1-mile of river under their stewardship, as well as facilitating a 20-acre addition to their nationally acclaimed valley view bluffs park; assisting cleveland metroparks with expanding bedford and brecksville reservations, while developing over 2 miles of the west creek greenway to provide access and connectivity to the over 40,000 people living within a 1-mile radius ; assisting cuyahoga valley national park with in-hold property conservation; assisting the ohio department of natural resources (odnr) with a nearly 200-acre expansion of the funk bottoms wildlife area, as well as expansion of dupont state nature preserve and tinker's creek state preserve; driving an initiative to preserve critical areas around talcott creek, a cold-water stream of the grand river watershed; protecting a 108-acre crucial source of drinking water in the headwaters of the cuyahoga river; further expanding the conservation corridor in furnace run/baldwin creek - a second phase now totaling over 100-acres that straddles brecksville and broadview heights; adding 12 acres to the highland heights city park, where we have already protected ov”

“Contract services - prop 668,418 167,104 0 land/easement acq costs 525,485 0 0 recharact of recov grant 250,000 0 0 bargain sales 225,000 0 0 unrelated bus. Income tax 0 101,500 0 environmental outreach 16,260 13,252 808 membership expense 19,917 0 7,441 donations 0 7,963 0 bad debt 5,661 0 0 conveyance fees 11 0 0 total 1,710,752 289,819 8,249”

“Ubi expenses net on financials -856,294 ubi expenses net on financials 856,294”