See what we're doing to help nurture the return of Ohio's forests. Take a look at some of the Buckeye State's finest freshwater resources.

Spring, summer, fall and winter, The Nature Conservancy’s preserves and project areas buzz with wildlife and human activity.  Get the latest news about what the Conservancy is doing to protect Ohio's finest natural areas.

Kitty Todd Preserve (Northwest Ohio) 
 

A 2008 prescribed burn at Kitty Todd Preserve produced remarkable results over the months that followed:

• Flowering stems of rough blazing star and dense blazing star more than tripled in some areas.
• Flowering grass-pink orchids about doubled in some areas
• State endangered wood lily re-appeared in several. locations and the number of blooming wood lilies in one population about tripled.
• Red-headed woodpeckers moved into burned areas where they had not previously nested.
• An area previously dominated by the non-native Kentucky bluegrass is now absent from at least 70% of that area and the site is now dominated by native prairie species.

Edge of Appalachia Preserve (Southern Ohio)

The Edge of Appalachia Preserve is now a natural meeting place, thanks to the Cincinnati Museum Center, which jointly owns and manages the 14,000-acre preserve system with The Nature Conservancy.  Opened in 2008, the Museum’s Eulett Center is a multipurpose meeting and educational facility designed to cater to the needs of local businesses and community group meetings, regional conferences, training and educational opportunities. 

Baker Swamp Preserve (Southern Ohio)

Once threatened by a proposed power plant, 119 acres of rare wetland habitat are now protected, thanks to the Conservancy’s acquisition of the land.  The 2008 purchase triples the size of the Conservancy’s Baker Swamp Preserve, an important sanctuary in a state that has lost more than 90 percent of its wetlands.  The expansion includes habitat for unusual aquatic communities that evolved within the preserve’s ancient lake bed, a relic of southeastern Ohio’s glacial past. 

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Richard Baumer (White Pine Bog); Photo © Lucy Miller (Eastern Box Turtle); Photo © Andy Morrison (Field of lupines at Kitty Todd Nature Preserve); Slideshow © Randall Schieber (Big Darby Headwaters Nature Preserve); Slideshow © Karen Adair (Morgan Swamp).