Arc of Appalachia’s

Hocking Hills Forever Initiative

The Arc of Appalachia is using every tool available in our conservation toolbox to preserve Hocking Hills’ most breathtaking landscapes, racing against the peril of rampant over-development.
Scroll down to see a map of all of Arc of Appalachia’s wildland preservation projects in Hocking County.

Hocking Hills in southeastern Ohio boasts some of the most visually stunning geological formations in the Eastern United States. Regretably, however, the Hocking Hills landscape as it looked fifty years ago is almost unrecognizable today. The state parks alone attract a conservative estimate of over five million visitors each year, and the larger region is becoming overwhelmed by day visitors, rental cabins, and second homes. Tourism is not the first boom economy in Hocking Hills. A long succession of extractive enterprises precedes it, including deforestation for lumber, charcoal production to fuel iron furnaces, strip mining for coal, drilling for natural gas, and the drilling of thousands of oil wells.

Today, the natural resources of Hocking Hills are once again the focus of an unregulated economy, and in an unzoned county. Thousands of cabins, lodges, homes, tree houses, cottages, yurts, densely populated campgrounds, and even shipping container rentals have sprouted up on the landscape—each one consuming water and producing sewage. Some lodges are so large and luxurious that they house entire indoor swimming pools and theaters. Hocking Hills is even the Zip-line Canopy Tour Capital of the Midwest, with over 50 courses.

With so much money to be made, the cost of land is skyrocketing to anywhere between $8,000 and $30,000 per acre - with new residences displacing the traditional agrarian residents. Without regulations and planning to guide such development, many stakeholders, both inside the county and out, are concerned that the development boom is just the latest in a long history of enterprises that drain the life and beauty out of the county. In short, Hocking Hills is in peril of being loved to death.

The Arc is contributing a moderating voice by committing to preserve the most beautiful landscapes in the region that remain untouched. In our preservation toolbox are outright land acquisition, donated conservation easements, and future bequests of land. These endeavors require substantial acquisition funds and, equally important, stewardship endowment funds so that the lands can be responsibly cared for in perpetuity. Arc-supporting endowment funds exist for our Hocking Hills Forever project at both the Columbus Foundation and the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio. If you wish to have a conversation about protecting private lands in the regions, or you are considering a directed donation for the cause, please contact our Director, Nancy Stranahan, at nancyoftheforest@gmail.com, or our main headquarters at 937-365-1935.