Conservation Rocks! is June 8 at Beachland

Local musicians who also happen to work in the field of conservation will take the stage June 8 when Western Reserve Land Conservancy presents the third annual Conservation Rocks! concert at the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern, 15711 Waterloo Road, Cleveland.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m.

Tickets, which are $10 in advance and $13 at the door, can be purchased through the Beachland website at www.beachlandballroom.com or by calling the Land Conservancy at 440-729-9621. The show is for all ages.

Performing will be Pete McDonald (of Western Reserve Land Conservancy) & the Black Oaks, The Swamp Rattlers (Geauga Park District), Steve Madewell (formerly of Lake Metroparks and currently with Metroparks of the Toledo Area) and He-Chaw Frunk (National Park Service).

The event is designed to build awareness for land conservation in northern Ohio. For the first time, this year’s concert will be on a Friday night – a fun way to end the work week.

“Last year’s event was an amazing success,” McDonald said. “The ballroom was filled with conservationists from all over the region, and the energy around our shared mission to preserve land in Ohio was very apparent.”

Folk rocker McDonald, who grew up in Geauga County and now lives in Cleveland, is the Land Conservancy’s director of stewardship, while singer-songwriter Madewell was recently named executive director of the Toledo park system after holding the same position in Lake County. Other musician-conservation links: The Swamp Rattlers feature members of the Geauga Park District staff, and Mark Slater, the drummer for Lakewood-based He-Chaw Frunk, helps preserve historic structures throughout the national park system.

Western Reserve Land Conservancy, a nonprofit organization formed by the merger of eight local land trusts in 2006, has preserved more than 420 properties and more than 29,000 acres in a 14-county region in northern Ohio. The Beachland Ballroom & Tavern, which is Cleveland’s most eclectic music club, opened in 2000. It was built in 1950 as the Croatian Liberty Home, with the ballroom and tavern comprising the original structure.