This 606-acre park features the 160-acre Bass Lake, a treasured natural resource for many generations, and Spring Brook Sanctuary, a State Nature Preserve protecting Ohio’s last known indigenous population of brook trout. Boating is allowed by permit; click here to request a permit.
Bass Lake Lodge is a great place for an intimate gathering while getting away.
Click here to learn more about, or reserve, a facility.
Please note that due to this park’s close proximity to residential housing, use of musical devices such as CD players, speakers, DJs and live bands here is prohibited.
Bass Lake Preserve is home to awesome lakeside views but no trails.
This park is all about the fish, so there are no trails. You can always walk around the lake.
Natural lake beauty provides a wonderful environment for multiple fish and wildlife species.
Bass Lake is a natural lake on the Chagrin River. The water level is maintained by a low dam on the Chagrin a short distance downstream of the outlet. The shallow lake lies in an ancient glacial flat and is largely surrounded by extensive wetlands. The sheltering wetlands have protected the lake from shoreline development, resulting in a multitude of exceptional ecological communities.
Today, parts of the lake remain as they must have appeared to early inhabitants of the region. About 90 percent of the shoreline is mantled in trees, shrubs and marsh vegetation.
Bass Lake is an important stopover during the great spring and fall migrations of waterfowl and neotropical songbirds. Bald Eagles nest in the lowland woods near the lake. Beavers ply the swampy tributaries. Native brook trout still swim in small streams that flow into the lake. Wild rice grows in the marshy margins.
The lakeshore forest is characterized by red maple, silver maple, swamp white oak, pin oak and American elm. It is home to wild turkey, Ruffed Grouse, White-tailed Deer, Masked Shrew and Northern Long-eared Bat – species that illustrate a mature, complex ecosystem with significant diversity. Rare nesting birds in Ohio such as the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Dark-eyed Junco also habitually appear here.
Spring Brook is a tributary of Bass Lake, a part of Bass Lake Preserve, which drains to the Upper Main Branch of the Chagrin River. Spring Brook also meanders through Spring Brook Sanctuary, a designated State Nature Preserve.
This coldwater habitat stream was once made up of a healthy combination of substrate with well-developed riffles, runs and pools, and provided great habitat for sensitive coldwater species such as the state Endangered Ohio brook trout. Over time, however, the stream degraded, and the substrate was scoured down to mostly hardpan clay, leaving unsuitable habitat for sensitive species. In addition, the streambanks were heavily eroded, leading to increased sediment.
In 2020, Geauga Park District, in partnership with Chagrin River Watershed Partners, was awarded a $219,000 Ohio EPA Section 319(h) grant to restore 800 linear feet of this coldwater habitat stream to improve water quality and habitat for Bass Lake and the Chagrin River Watershed. Check out this fact sheet for an overview of the resulting project.
EnviroScience, GPD Group and River Reach Construction were contracted as the design-build team to complete the restoration using natural channel design principles and bioengineering methods. Riffle pool complexes were reconstructed to create stability to the stream channel and provide habitat once again for sensitive cold-water species. Spring Brook was also reconnected to its floodplain. Floodplains are vital for stream stability as they reduce the volume and energy in the channel by providing overbank storage of flow and will also prevent future erosion on the streambanks. The project also made use of boulders, woody debris, and branch and log revetments to add stability to the streambanks and create additional habitat within the stream channel, and enhanced about two acres of riparian area with invasive species removal and native species plantings.
This project was financed in part or totally through a grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency through an assistance agreement with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. The contents and views, including any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations, contained in this product or publication are those of the authors and have not been subject to any Ohio Environmental Protection Agency or United States Environmental Protection Agency peer or administrative review and may not necessarily reflect the views of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency or the United States Environmental Protection Agency and no official endorsement should be inferred.
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