Rock Formations at the Emerald Forest Corridor properties. Photo by Lewis Ulman
210-acre EMERALD FOREST!!
Building a Connected Preserve Corridor between
Clear Creek Metro Park & Hocking Hills State Park
Our dream is to build a one-mile preservation corridor between these two large, pre-existing conservation blocks. The 210-acre Emerald Forest project is critically placed to further our progress!
Oh, so close! Hocking Hills is the repository of some of the most stunningly beautiful landscapes in all of Ohio, attracting millions of tourists annually. Currently, the two largest forest blocks in Hocking Hills are the 5300-acre contiguous Clear Creek Metro Park and the 11,500-acre Hocking Hills State Parkare separated by only one mile of privately-owned land.
Total Project Cost: $2,733,938
Current balance yet to raise: $228,700
Progress by percent: 92%
Picking up the puzzle pieces. A few years ago, the Arc of Appalachia began buying and protecting wildlands in Hocking County - in part to mitigate the region’s intense development of cabins and residential retreats. To date, we have purchased eight properties, accepted three land donations, and hold four conservation easements, totaling 1,333 acres!
An arc of connection! It was only a few months ago that we looked at a map of our progress and recognized that, by sheer synchronicity, the Arc of Appalachia was already close to connecting the dots between Clear Creek Metro Park and Hocking Hills State Park, via 1,055-acre Cantwell Cliffs State Park! See the map below.
Recently, when two large parcels of land came up for sale in the corridor region, the Emerald Forest campaign was born. Acquiring Emerald Forest will significantly widen the corridor and increase the opportunities for the final connection. Imagine the benefits to wildlife that a protected corridor of this size will bring! Scroll down for more details, and click on Hocking Hills Forever to view maps of all of the Arc’s preservation work in Hocking County.
The 210 acres that compose the Emerald Forest boast pristine streams with clean sandy substrates, beaver ponds, striking rock formations, extensive wetlands of skunk cabbage, and vast colonies of wet-loving ferns. This preservation opportunity is simply breathtaking!
Protecting a healthy forest community. The Emerald Forest is a large block of mixed deciduous forest composed of mature oaks, hickories, beech, and maples. The landscape boasts expansive forested wetlands filled with skunk cabbage, and over a mile of pristine streams that support several species of salamanders and an abundance of aquatic insects. A large beaver pond dominates one of the parcels, and both properties shelter stunning rock formations. And, oh my, the fern diversity! Even though our botanical surveys are only in their preliminary stages, 17 species of ferns have already been observed, including vast colonies of cinnamon ferns which, in the wetlands, grow chest high.
For the Birds. The deep woodlands of the Emerald Forest support many migrating warbler species, including ovenbird, Louisiana waterthrush, Kentucky warbler, hooded warbler, worm-eating warbler, black and white warbler, American redstart, and wood thrush. Clear Creek Metro Park - to which these tracts nearly connect - is a designated National Audubon Society Important Bird Area that supports one of the largest concentrations of nesting warblers in Ohio. The Bird Area averages 16-19 warbler species annually, with the total number of breeding species topping over 100 according to the National Audubon Society. Creating a protected corridor of healthy forests and waterways that support an abundance of insect species will further enhance the secure habitat available to many deep-forest bird species that depend upon large blocks of forest for their breeding success.
Please, make a donation. Buying and saving land is the gift that keeps giving forever.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What expenses are covered by the campaign? The campaign includes the total costs of purchasing the land, and a modest investment in stewardship. We will need a lot more funding in the future to care for Emerald Forest sustainably in perpetuity. For more information on how the Arc stewards its preserves, follow this link,“Stewardship Forever.”
Word About Grants. The Arc applied for funding for Emerald Forest through the Ohio EPA’s Water Resource Restoration Sponsorship Program last year, and we are delighted to announce that our request was approved, which is why this project’s funding is so far along! We are hoping the pledged funds will be available to us before year’s end, enabling us to close on both parcels.
Will I be able to visit the property? The Arc of Appalachia is renowned for developing some of Ohio’s most stunning trails, currently maintaining over 80 miles of them. We look forward to the day the corridor fills in between these two preservation forest blocks of Clear Creek and Hocking Hills via Cantwell Cliffs, because it would create a corridor in which we could build what we are sure would be an immensely popular connecting trail. In the meantime, we will offer guided hikes into the property from time to time. Be sure to subscribe to our education notices via email and through Telegram, a phone app that shares our nature discoveries, to keep up with our progress. Click the Subscribe button.
Is the Arc a trustworthy nonprofit? The answer is YES!! Naturally, we are just a wee bit biased, but all for good reasons! Our dynamic staff and committed board are all dedicated to integrity, honesty, efficiency, hard work, and transparency. The best reviews of all come from our donors, nearly all of whom stay with us long-term. Many who supported us when the Arc started 30 years ago are still a part of our community. For those of you interested in fiscal data, our 2024 audited financials are linked to our donation page. We invite you to read more about our mission here while also checking out our recent annual news magazines - a celebration of the Arc’s energized land preservation achievements! We hope you will consider visiting us at our headquarters, the 3,000-acre Highlands Nature Sanctuary in south central Ohio, where we have 18 miles of trails and overnight rental cabins.
Would you like to contact us? Phone our office staff at (937) 365-1935, or write to arcpreserveinfo@gmail.com. Our headquarters at the Appalachian Forest Museum is hosted by REAL people (amazing, right?), 7 days a week from March 15 to November 15, from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm. The other half of the year, our phones and emails are staffed Monday through Friday.