Cliff Run Cascades. Photo by Lewis Ulman.
Cliff Run
a new 300-acre preserve in Ross County
Project Cost - Phases 2 & 3 $1,242,510
Current balance yet to raise: only $39,253!
Stewardship Funds critically needed
Cliff Run Preserve - one of the Arc’s newest - has been almost a decade in the making. It lies just a few miles north of the Highlands Nature Sanctuary on the eastern boundary of 5,650-acre Paint Creek State Park. The preserve protects two outstanding waterways in a classic karst landscape: Cliff Run, and its smaller tributary, Lewis Gorge. Both streams boast impressively deep vertical-sided gorges with stunning rock features.
Like most karst landscapes, Cliff Run Preserve has exceptionally showy wildflower showcases in the spring. Even before the property was purchased by the Arc, the previous owners permitted us to sure the gorge for the Arc’s annual Wildflower Pilgrimage. Drifts of flowers cling to 50-foot vertical cliffs that border the limestone-bottomed creek, and festoon the narrow riparian corridors bordering the canyons’ waterways. This is a karst country floral showcases at its best!
The Arc’s land stewardship team is in the process of developing an exceptionally beautiful public hiking trail, scheduled to open soon. The trail is enhanced with a floating bridge, beautifully crafted bridges, and passes a thriving beaver colony.
Scroll beneath the photo gallery for more detailed information.
A Premier Karst Landscape. Karst is an uncommon landscape type in Ohio, due to the fact that most of the state’s limestone and dolomite bedrocks are deeply buried under glacial till. Karst refers to landscapes anywhere on the planet where alkaline bedrocks - usually limestone or dolomite - lie close to the earth’s surface. Situated above an ancient formation of “Peebles Dolomite,” Cliff Run Preserve is a genuine karst landscape, boasting such classic karst features such as bluffs, sinkholes, seeps, springs, and grottos, as well as a mile of vertical-walled dolomite canyon. The karst bluffs and waterways found at Cliff Run represent intact and healthy native ecosystems, as evidenced by the presence rich spring wildflowers, exceptional water quality, and high tree species diversity.
Cliff Run Preserve’s Outstanding Spring Wildflowers. Wildflowers are one of the best indicators of an intact forest ecosystem. When a forest is negatively impacted by human activities, it shows up most dramatically and visibly in a) soil health, b) water quality, and c) plummeting understory biodiversity. All three indicators of good forest health receive high marks at Cliff Run Preserve. In fact, the preserve boasts one of the densest spring wildflower displays in a region already renowned for its wildflower displays, a region that includes the nearby Highlands Nature Sanctuary and Paint Creek Reservoir (see map above). Many of the signature plants found at Cliff Run Preserve are specially adapted to high-alkaline habitats, including hepatica, columbine, smooth cliff brake, miterwort, Sullivantia, and walking fern.
Cold Water Streams: The protected watershed of Cliff Run includes a stretch of Cliff Run proper, as well as the beautiful side tributary known as Lewis Family Gorge. The striking beauty of gorge’s vertical dolomite cliffs and the pavement-like level rock bottom was what inspired the initial pursuit of this land’s acquisition. Both the gorge and the beautiful ravine carved by Cliff Run support rich macroinvertebrates and cold-water adapted fauna, including the mottled sculpin.
Visitor Services Planned for Cliff Run. Arc staff are actively working on a hiking trail at Cliff Run Preserve, which will open in the next few months. Our Land Stewardship Team has been pouring their artistry and creative skills into the preserve’s trail design. Concrete steps descend to the canyon floor, and staff members constructed a 280-foot-long floating bridge, giving hikers access to the small lake without interfering with the beavers who have remodeled the lake to their liking. The Arc’s Stewardship Team also built a gorgeous 45-foot footbridge spanning Cliff Run proper, supported by I-beams they repurposed from an abandoned trailer dismantled on the site.