The Nature Conservancy in Ohio - Rick Gardner: Preserving Ohio's Natural Heritage

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Rick Gardner is one of Ohio's premier botanists. His work with The Nature Conservancy and the Ohio Department of Natural Resource's Division of Natural Areas and Preserves has influenced conservation efforts across the state.

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"The Division of Natural Areas and Preserves has a very similar mission as the Conservancy. Our work overlaps on a regular basis."

— Rick Gardner, Botanist, Division of Natural Areas and Preserves

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The Nature Conservancy in Ohio bid farewell to its resident botanist of seven years, Rick Gardner, in 2004. While Gardner no longer is on staff, he continues to work with the Conservancy on a regular basis as the Heritage Botanist in Ohio’s Natural Heritage Program, within the Ohio Department of Natural Resource’s Division of Natural Areas and Preserves.

“The Division of Natural Areas and Preserves has a very similar mission as the Conservancy,” Gardner explains. “Our work overlaps on a regular basis.”

Conservancy members will remember Rick for the rare plants he frequently turned up on Conservancy properties, or on other lands across Ohio, and some may have had the good fortune to participate in one of the field trips he led over the years.

Gardner’s position with Natural Areas and Preserves exists in part due to Conservancy work from three decades ago. The Conservancy set up Ohio’s Natural Heritage Database in 1976 before turning it over to the state agency.

“The Heritage Program manages this database, which is a comprehensive list of all the rare plants, animals, and natural communities in the state,” Gardner says.

Nancy Strayer, Assistant Chief of the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves, is happy to have Gardner on board. “Rick has been a great boost for our botanical staff,” Strayer says. “He often locates plants that have not been seen for years, and has even discovered plants never before found in the state."

For Gardner, tracking plants is nothing new. In fact, his self-proclaimed greatest accomplishment at the Conservancy was completing Flora at the Edge of Appalachia Preserve (a reference manual for scientists).

“The ‘Flora,’ which I co-authored with Dave Minney (the Conservancy’s Southern Ohio Preserve Manager), took several years to finish and involved writing pages of field notes and collecting hundreds of specimens,” Gardner says. “I hope it will be a useful for many years.”

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Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Richard Baumer (Wildflower Mix); Photo © TNC (Rick Gardner).