Appalachian Forest

Saving forests for future generations

Ancient forests of massive oaks and American chestnut once blanketed nearly all of what would become southern and eastern Ohio. When the first white settlers arrived in the Ohio Valley, wolves and elk wandered this rustic landscape of pristine rivers and fertile forests. Yet by the early 1900s, about 90 percent of the original forest cover had been cleared to make room for farmland and to feed the iron furnaces of southern Ohio-severely degrading part of North America's oldest and most biologically diverse forest systems. The 1920's brought the start of a slow recovery-a process that continues today with the help of The Nature Conservancy and our many partners.

Conservation Profile
Today nearly 40 percent of Ohio's Appalachian region is covered in mixed hardwood forest, including five forest regions that are identified by the Conservancy for immediate conservation action: Hocking Hills, Ironton, Lake Katharine, Marietta and Shawnee (which includes the 13,000-acre Edge of Appalachian preserve system). These forests harbor more than 62 species of trees, and a number of Appalachian herbs and shrubs reach the northern extent of their range here, including great rhododendron, flame azalea, and Canby’s mountain-lover. These forest regions are home to two globally-imperiled mammals (the Indiana bat and the Allegheny woodrat) and they provide critical habitat for many neotropical migratory birds, including the heart of the breeding range for the cerulean warbler. As the forests recover, large mammal species such as black bear and bobcat are making a comeback here, along with game species like ruffed grouse and wild turkey.

Habitat fragmentation, broken ownership patterns, and lack of landscape level forest management are current threats to Ohio’s forests. Although Ohio has more than 8 million acres of forest, large blocks of continuous woodland are rare, and critical because they protect individual species as well as natural processes (including fire, storms, and other disturbances) that make for a healthy ecosystem. The Conservancy’s conservation strategy for the Appalachian forests is to work with public and private partners to protect forest regions large enough to be sustainable, both ecologically and economically with a forest reserve of at least 20,000 acres at the heart of each region, surrounded by at least 40,000 acres of working forest landscape.

Cerulean warblers are an indicator of forest health in Ohio’s Appalachian region. © Marja H. Bakermans

"We are at a crossroads in Ohio. What we do over the next decade will determine whether our children will experience true forest landscapes, or not." JAREL HILTON, Director of Conservation Programs for Southern Ohio

Innovative Partnerships
With 95 percent of Ohio’s woodlands in private ownership, forest conservation requires strong relationships with local landowners and communities. To further encourage the protection of these large landscapes, the Conservancy is also working with government agencies to promote public policies that support forest protection on both public and private lands.

1. Public Forests: The Conservancy is working to consolidate the scattered ownership patterns of public forest land. A recent example is the purchase of 4,000 acres of young forest in Lawrence County, with the intent of transferring it to the Wayne National Forest to become part of the Ironton Forest Region (one of the largest tracts of unbroken public forest in Ohio.) The Conservancy has created the Future Forest initiative to raise funds for similar projects in our five forest regions.

2. Forest Health: The Nature Conservancy, through its Ecology Project Office in Logan, Ohio,
is working with the U.S. Forest Service Northeastern Research Station, Mead Westvaco, and the Ohio Division of Forestry to study forest health in Southern Ohio and to encourage the use of improved science and ecosystem level management in forest planning.

Innovative Strategies
From buying land to encouraging nature-based tourism, the Conservancy is developing unique conservation techniques to advance our vision of large parcels of unbroken forest in
Ohio’s Appalachian forest region.

1. Forest Restoration: The Conservancy plans to demonstrate the compatibility of active forest management and the conservation of rare species and communities, using our Strait
   Creek Preserve as a demonstration, in close cooperation with Mead Westvaco Corp., a large forest landowner in close proximity. The Strait Creek Preserve project will demonstrate
   the compatibility of active forest management with the conservation of rare species and restoration of natural communities, and would be a first step toward advancing a larger vision for forest conservation in Appalachian Ohio.
2. Community-based Conservation: The Edge of Appalachian Preserve System in Adams County is an example of how the Conservancy recognizes the need to protect ecologically sensitive areas while at the same time working with local communities to fi nd economic development that is compatible with conservation. Our locally-based staff has helped to develop an economic development organization and to create nature-based tourism opportunities
   focused on bird-watching and the region’s rich cultural history.