The Friends of Euclid Creek and Mayfield Schools have teamed up to protect 12.5 acres of the 37-acre property owned by the district, between Bishop Road and Highland Heights city park.

It is the culmination of a three-year effort between the groups, the Plain Dealer reported here in November 2007.

The Friends group paid $273,600 for an easement on the district property. The Friends of Euclid Creek Natural Resource Assistant Council obtained a grant from the Clean Ohio Fund for the easement.

Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District will hold and monitor the easement.

The board approved the easement Oct. 24 and determined that the money will go into the district's permanent improvement fund.

"It gives me special pleasure to announce this. This is true partnership. It is what happens when two groups work together for the greater good," Mayfield Schools superintendent Phillip Price said.

"This is a 'pocket prairie,' leftover from the Ohio prairie. It is one of the last in Ohio."

The site includes wetlands and a meadow in which 408 plant species, some rare and endangered, have been identified by botanists from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Cleveland State University.

It is the only site in Ohio where the Dusty Goldenrod still grows, and the only place in Cuyahoga County that contains Beak-rush plants and orange-grass. Prairie orchids also grow there.