CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio -- The Ohio Department of Natural Resources on Friday will designate the Cuyahoga River as an official water trail, with 24 access points, signage, maps and educational material on nearly 100 miles of river.

Twenty-five organizations -- including the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, cities along the river and nonprofit groups -- have been working since 2011 on the designation, the state’s 13th water trail.

On Friday, ODNR Director Mary Mertz will speak in a 10 a.m. ceremony at Water Works Park in Cuyahoga Falls.

A water trail is a stretch of lake or river that has been identified as a recreational resource with maps and signage showing official access points, amenities and safety information. The goal is to promote public use of waterways, support tourism and encourage conservation.

Trails are geared to all paddlecraft: kayaks, canoes and stand-up paddleboards.

On the Cuyahoga, paddling experiences vary from calm and scenic in the upper river near Hiram to challenging white water in the gorge of Cuyahoga Falls to the industrial shipping channel in Cleveland.

The designation is the culmination of 50 years of environmental reinvigoration of the river, and consequently Lake Erie. The river caught fire periodically through the first half of the 20th century, until the final fire in 1969.

“We were told not to even put our fingers in the water,” said Virginia Aveni, who tackled cleaning up the river when the Cuyahoga Remedial Action Plan began in 1988. “It was a complete gel almost of petrochemicals. The sheen and the thickness of the river… it was totally jammed with downfall from upstream. Every kind of litter you can imagine, it was in the river.”

Now, after 50 years of grassroots clean-ups and federal enforcement, nonprofit work and municipal policies, the river is an environmental and recreational asset for Northeast Ohio.

See all of cleveland.com’s Cuyahoga50 coverage.

The Cuyahoga River Water Trail is managed by the City of Akron, City of Cuyahoga Falls, City of Kent, Cleveland Metroparks, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Geauga Park District, Mantua Village, Portage Park District, Summit Metro Parks and Village of Silver Lake.

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