None The Nature Conservancy in Ohio Press Releases Search All Press Releases Randall Edwards Phone: (614) 717-2770 ext. 130 E-mail: redwards@tnc.org

Nature Conservancy Celebrates 50th Anniversary in Ohio

The Nature Conservancy has been working to protect Ohio's plants and wildlife since May 24, 1958

DUBLIN, OHIO — May 22, 2008 — The Nature Conservancy, one of the oldest and largest nature conservation organizations in Ohio, celebrates 50 years of preserving plant and animal life in Ohio this weekend.

On May 24, 1958, a small group of conservationists chartered the Conservancy’s Ohio Chapter and dedicated themselves to protecting what was left of the Buckeye State’s dwindling natural resources. Their first effort – buying a 42-acre parcel of natural grassland in Adams County known as Lynx Prairie – has since grown to the 14,000-acre Edge of Appalachia Preserve, one of the largest privately-owned nature preserves in the Midwest. Over the past 50 years the organization has grown to nearly 30,000 Ohio-based members and has worked with partners to protect more than 40,000 acres of Ohio’s best forest, grassland and wetland.

The Conservancy’s network of private nature preserves, which includes the Edge of Appalachia Preserve in southern Ohio, as well as the Kitty Todd Preserve near Toledo, Morgan Swamp in Ashtabula County and the Big Darby Headwaters Preserve northwest of Columbus, protect important strongholds of plant and wildlife diversity, preserving Ohio’s natural heritage for future generations.

"It's a remarkable story, really,” says Terry Seidel, the Conservancy’s director of real estate in Ohio. “I wonder if our founders could have imagined where that first purchase would lead us."

In addition to purchasing habitat, the Conservancy has been a leader in promoting progressive, science-based conservation policies in Ohio, from the establishment of Ohio’s Natural Heritage Program (1976) to supporting voter approval of the Clean Ohio Fund (2000).

And the Conservancy’s Ohio-based members have reached out beyond the Buckeye State’s borders to protect nature and preserve life.  The Conservancy’s Ohio Chapter was a leader in moving the Conservancy into global conservation and participated in the United States’ first “debt-for-nature” swap, protecting important migratory bird habitat in Belize (2001). Today, the Conservancy has programs in more than 30 countries.

Many of the Conservancy’s protection projects have become some of Ohio’s most popular parks. For a list of public lands that the Conservancy has helped to protect, see http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/ohio/preserves/art11493.html

You can learn more about The Nature Conservancy and our 50 years of preserving Ohio’s future by visiting our web site at www.nature.org/ohio.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.