By Juliet Eilperin
The Washington Post
Friday, August 27, 2004; Page A19
Northeast Ohio is not famous for its viticulture, but now a public watchdog
group has turned its spotlight on a winery on the grounds of Cuyahoga Valley
National Park.
That's because the National Park Service has, since 1999, spent more than
$475,000 to fund the winery, along with two organic vegetable and free-range
chicken farms and other activities on park grounds, according to documents
released Wednesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
(PEER).
The winery has yet to produce wine, and internal documents from Sarah's
Vineyard raise questions about the operation's financial viability. But park
officials said the broad farming project, known as the Countryside
Initiative, is a way to preserve the region's agricultural character, saying
it could serve as a model for the country.
PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose group obtained the park documents
through a Freedom of Information Act request, questioned why taxpayers
should fund a $55,000 line to bring municipal water to the vineyard, as well
as $99,000 to rehabilitate its farmstead.
"This project is both an absurd and improper use of taxpayers' money," Ruch
said. "It is not the business of the Park Service to help the great state of
Ohio acquire a reputation for winemaking."
But Cuyahoga Valley National Park's superintendent, John Debo, said the
initiative was an innovative way to recapture the region's agricultural
history while attracting visitors to the 30-year-old park.
"It's our way of responding to the need to preserve the cultural landscape
of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park," Debo said. "It clearly is part of our
mandate to preserve agriculture heritage."
The park has leased out three farm properties on park grounds, including the
vineyard, at market rates. Debo said he hopes to lease out up to 30 farm
properties over the next decade. In the case of the winery, the park
receives $466 a month rent for the residence and a percentage of the gross
farm product, which will increase from 5 to 10 percent over the next 10
years.
Darwin Kelsey, executive director for the nonprofit organization that
advises the park on the Countryside Initiative, said the three farms now
generate about $25,000 in annual revenue but the figures should rise rapidly
in future years.
"These dudes are just getting off the ground," Kelsey said, adding that his
group, the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy, has raised close to
$500,000 from area private foundations to finance the initiative. "We're off
and running."
The project has the backing of a senior appropriator, Rep. Ralph Regula
(R-Ohio), as well as the Interior Department. The Park Service also spent
three years preparing an environmental impact statement on the leasing
project and has concluded that farming will not hurt the parkland.
The winery has a residence as well as vineyards. Its 2.25 acres of grapes
include varieties such as Cabernet Franc, Chambourcin and Traminette. The
couple running the winery, Mike and Margaret Lytz, plan to produce 625 cases
of wine from their current property by 2008, according to park officials.
According to Sarah's Vineyard's 2003 annual operating plan, the winery
operators have some doubt about its future. They wrote in one passage: "How
do we justify more expenditures given this current situation of no return on
investment? Are we expected to keep throwing time and money into our
enterprise with the hope that some day our partners . . . will be able to
devote the necessary resources to produce the required Environmental
Assessment?"
Debo said the Park Service is hoping to wrap up the assessment, which
differs from the impact statement, to determine how constructing the barn
and a small parking lot for the winery will affect parkland. Park officials
must approve the construction before it can take place.
"They have been frustrated, I will admit, with the slow pace of the Park
Service," he said. "The good news is, we're getting close to wrapping it
up."
Lytz, a schoolteacher who learned winemaking from his Italian grandfather,
said he was optimistic that he and his wife would eventually produce 10,000
cases of wine a year. He said they had already invested $100,000 in the
project and hoped to produce 200 cases next fall. An Ohioan, he noted that
the state was the leading grape producer in the mid-1800s.
"It will be very viable if we can get it off the ground," Lytz said. "It's a
place for people to come in and sit down and enjoy the scenery."
Debo, who has devoted 16 years to promoting the initiative, said PEER has
made "a sordid misrepresentation of these small, sustainable farmsteads"
because the group wants the park to return to "wilderness condition."
"We're not going to let that happen," he said.