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Ralph Ramey

Ralph Ramey has, in various capacities, dedicated more than 60 years of his life to conservation. He is an honorary life trustee of the Conservancy in Ohio.

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"All those things that were created as part of this world deserve to live as much as we do."

— Ralph Ramey, Honorary Life Trustee of the Conservancy in Ohio

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Purchase your copy of 50 Hikes in Ohio at a local bookstore or directly from the publisher (www.countrymanpress.com; (800) 245-4151). For a signed copy, contact the author at ralphramey@aol.com.

Learn more about governance at the Conservancy.   

Hikers at a Nature Conservancy Preserve

 

Dr. Ralph Ramey knows Ohio’s natural areas with an intimacy few others can match, because he’s walked the best of them numerous times. The author of 50 Hikes in Ohio, former chief of ODNR’s Division of Natural Areas and Preserves, and 40-year member of The Nature Conservancy, Ramey has been exploring the state’s natural areas for more than six decades.

What he’s witnessed worries him. “In the woods where I used to walk, where I would see a pine warbler darting around the trunk of a tree in front of me, or find a box turtle, or hear the wood frogs in the spring – all those things, little by little, are disappearing,” he says. “It’s been a long time since I awoke to the sound of a whip-poor-will, or a ruffed grouse drumming.”

Concern over lost habitat for these creatures drives Ramey’s continued involvement with the Conservancy.

 “All those things that were created as part of this world deserve to live as much as we do,” says Ramey.

Ramey, of Westerville, is an Honorary Life Trustee of the Conservancy in Ohio and has served on the board for more than 30 years, including a term as its chairman in the early ‘70s. He has earned the Oak Leaf Award and other high honors at both the state and national level.

But his conservation work reaches far beyond his support for the Conservancy. He has worked for the Franklin County Metro Parks and the Miami County Park System. As an employee of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, he helped lobby the state legislature to create a system of state nature preserves – and 20 years later, he became the second chief of the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves. He also was director of the Glen Helen Nature Preserve in Yellow Springs, and has written three books about hiking in Ohio.

Now mostly retired, Ramey continues to serve as an advocate for Ohio’s natural resources and as a voice of wisdom and support for the Conservancy.

View other Faces of Conservation.  

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © TNC (Hikers at a Nature Conservancy preserve); Photo © TNC (Ralph Ramey).