Lucia S. Nash Preserve

Visit

• What to See

  A variety of flora and fauna call the Lucia S. Nash Preserve home.

  • Plants: rare tamarack-hardwood bog community, grass-pink orchid, necklace sedge, early coral-root, bunchberry, bog bedstraw, butternut, marsh spear-grass, coarse smartweed, Hill's pondweed, bog willow, white water crowfoot, arrow arum, yellow water lily
  • Birds: bald eagle, hermit thrush, marsh wren, sedge wren, cerulean warbler, least bittern, Virginia rail, Canada warbler, yellow-bellied sapsucker, trumpeter swan, sandhill crane, wood duck, osprey, wild turkey, great blue heron
  • Mammals: beaver, otter, raccoon, mink, fox
  • Reptiles: spotted turtle, Northern water snake, snapping turtle
• Trail Information

  The Barbara A. Lipscomb Snow Lake Trail, named in honor of a former trustee and lifelong supporter of TNC, includes nearly two miles of easy hiking trails from which to explore the preserve’s key features, including:

  Snow Lake

  Keep an eye out for blue-winged teal, common merganser, lesser scaup and other waterfowl during spring and fall migrations. The rare lake chubsucker and other fish thrive beneath the surface, while floating aquatic plants, like the white water-crowfoot, grow along the shallow margin. River otter and beaver are also found here.

  Wetlands

  In spring and summer, look for sandhill cranes among the cattails and grasses. Fragrant water lilies and spatterdock grow in the wettest areas, while red maples, yellow birch, speckled alder and swamp rose take root in shrub swamps. Spring-fed fens support the rare tamarack tree, Ohio’s only native conifer.

  Vernal Pools

  In spring, look for these seasonal pools, which provide excellent breeding habitat for frogs and salamanders and support a variety of native vegetation, like swamp white oak, pin oak and buttonbush shrub. Late February ushers in Ohio’s first blooms with the skunk cabbage’s strange, red, hood-shaped flowers.

  Allow 2-3 hours for this trail, so there will be time to stop and observe the lake from the overlook and any wildlife sitings; listen to the birds and study the plant communities. Trail length is 1.8 miles.

• Preserve Guidelines

  Our vision is of a world where people and nature thrive together. The Nature Conservancy encourages people of all ages, races, ethnicities, religions, gender expressions and abilities to visit our preserves and has a zero-tolerance policy for racism and discrimination.

  The following activities are NOT permitted at The Lucia S. Nash Preserve:

  • Biking and mountain biking
  • Camping
  • Driving an ATV or off-road vehicle
  • Cooking or camp fires
  • Horseback riding
  • Hunting
  • Picking flowers, berries, nuts or mushrooms
  • Removing any part of the natural landscape
  • Snowmobiling

  Please note that there are no facilities of any kind on the trail.

  Lucia S. Nash Preserve is pet-friendly. Leashed pets (leash no longer than 6 feet) are welcome on the trails. In order to protect the delicate habitats, please make sure to clean up after your pets.

  Use of other power-driven mobility devices (OPDMDs) is permitted only when the preserve is open to the public and only on the gravel trail (not on boardwalk or earthen trail), cannot be gas powered, speed cannot exceed 8 miles per hour and width cannot exceed 36 inches. For more information about the use of (OPDMDs) at our open preserves, please visit our OPDMD guidelines.