Ralph Ramey
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 in The Nature Conservancy.
“All those things that were created as part of this world deserve to live as much as we do,” says Ramey, now 78.
Ramey, of Westerville, is an Honorary Life Member of the Ohio Chapter’s Board of Trustees 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 chapter’s Oak Leaf Award and other high honors at both the chapter 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 Nature Conservancy,” said Rich Shank, the Conservancy’s state director in Ohio.
50 Hikes in Ohio, third edition, will be published by The Countryman Press on May 7, 2007. Purchase yours 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.
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