Ohio

Since 1985, the Fund and its partners have protected nearly 100,000 acres in Ohio, including sensitive wildlife habitat on Lake Erie’s North Bass Island and popular recreation lands near Cleveland.

The Holden Arboretum

Less than an hour’s drive from Cleveland, The Holden Arboretum offers a colorful escape into nature. The 3,500-acre arboretum—one of the nation’s largest—offers magnificent gardens, miles of hiking trails and exhibits showcasing more than 5,000 plants, many native to Ohio. Thanks to The Milton and Tamar Maltz Family Foundation, we were able to provide a loan through our Land Trust Loan Program that allowed the arboretum to protect 90 acres of forests, lakes and headwater streams that impact the health of the Great Lakes Basin watershed.

Ale's Run Wildlife Management Area

Working with B&N Coal, the Ohio Department of Natural Resource's Division of Wildlife and the Wild Turkey Federation, we purchased 2,905 acres of rolling hardwood forest and meadows. These reclaimed Ohio coal lands now provide a highly productive habitat for white-tailed deer, ruffed grouse and turkey. With this addition, the Fund has acquired nearly 50,000 acres for the Division of Wildlife - just about half of the Ohio's present holdings.

North Bass Island

Most of North Bass Island, one of Lake Erie’s last undeveloped islands, is now protected thanks to the critical support of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The Conservation Fund facilitated negotiations between private landowners and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to safeguard the 600 acres of the island, including its uncommon coastal resources and sensitive wetlands.

Spruce Hill Works

The most extraordinary achievements of the people of the Hopewell culture were the huge earthworks they built, including walls of stone and earth to surround their ceremonial places. About two thousand years ago they built a stone wall that encloses 150 acres on a hilltop known as Spruce Hill in the scenic Paint Valley river corridor in the Arc of Appalachia region, west of Chillicothe and near Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. Our loan to the Archaeological Conservancy enabled the purchase of this 238-acre property which was to be sold at public auction.