From Newfoundland in Canada to the hills of northern Alabama, and including a significant swath of eastern Ohio, the 2,000-mile long Appalachian Mountains’ verdant canopy has covered more than 130 million acres for millions of years. From a motorist or aircraft passenger’s distant perspective, the Appalachians may appear to be a monolithic expanse of tree canopy, but the range is in fact a bevy of biodiversity. The range provides a home for more than 100 unique species of trees, more than 2,000 kinds of fungi, and countless thousands of members of the animal kingdom including more than 100 species of salamanders alone.
Arc of Appalachia is a 30-year-old nonprofit that purchases and preserves tracts of land throughout the Appalachian range of Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. Nancy Stranahan, its executive director and co-founder, had worked for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources until the early ‘80s, but grew weary of the bureaucracy endemic to government. During the years in between, she became an entrepreneur, operating a bakery and café, which helped her master the administrative functions required to successfully operate a nonprofit. But protecting the natural world and educating the public about its importance remained a driving passion.
She said Arc of Appalachia somewhat resembles the Nature Conservancy’s transactional model for obtaining parcels of land but referred to it as “purer” because active preservation and promoting biodiversity is a major component of its mission.
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Nancy Stranahan is the executive director of the Arc and was one of the nonprofit’s founders in 1995. “I would say that our mission might be more similar to the state’s nature preserves in terms of protecting the land that we purchase,” Stranahan said. “We welcome research, but we emphasize educating the public about the importance of protecting the land and connecting people and nature.”
She lives in Highland County at the Highlands Nature Sanctuary, the organization’s first land purchase. From the initial 75-acre purchase, the organization has grown to maintaining 14,000 acres on 75 tracts throughout Appalachia. Highland Nature Sanctuary itself has swelled to approximately 3,000 acres. In Ohio, the nation’s seventh-most populous state, wilderness protection differs significantly from less inhabited states because it entails obtaining smaller parcels and reforesting land with vestiges of commercial and agricultural activity.
“When people think of pristine land, they think more of Western areas,” Stranahan said. “But the biodiversity is tremendous in the temperate forest biome of our region. We receive more rain, which supports more diverse lifeforms.”
She noted that there are more than 200 tree species within the Appalachians, with approximately fifty being commonplace within this region. She said that the region’s biodiversity is underrated, noting that in places like southern California, several ecosystems intersect and present a compelling natural tableau, making Ohio look less naturally rich, which isn’t the case.
“If you look at the total number of species compared to Western states, this region won’t be the same,” according to Stranahan. “But, if you look at it in terms of species per square mile, our biodiversity is comparable. The temperate broad-leaf forest is second only to the tropical rainforest in terms of biodiversity.”
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Sylvan Deep Preserve in Jackson County is destined to be one of the most beautiful preserves in the Arc of Appalachia system. Trails are currently under development.
Stranahan emphasized education as a major tool for natural preservation, and she referred to the goal as “forest literacy.” Events have become an effective tool for engaging the public and stoking interest in the natural world. They include:
- The Wildflower Pilgrimage, a three-day event which occurs every April at Highlands and celebrates early-season spring ephemerals such as trilliums, trout lilies, and bloodroot with hikes into landscapes such as rock arches and sinkholes that are especially bountiful in their yields of wildflowers
- Mothapalooza, a weekend-long happening which also takes place at Highlands and showcases the region’s diverse moth populations and other nocturnal insects by attracting them with specially installed light stations. According to the Arc of Appalachia website, Ohio has more than 3,000 moth species that range from a few millimeters long to palm-sized creatures
- And the John Roger Simon Sorghum Festival, which will occur September 27 and 28 at Simon Farm in West Portsmouth. The festival will feature live music, traditional foods, tours of the farm’s mid-nineteenth-century farmhouse, and demonstrations of such heritage crafts as caning chairs, corn husk doll making, and soap making.
Education also includes inviting the public to workdays to destroy invasive plants that choke out native vegetation. Honeysuckle is a well-known nuisance, but Stranahan also pointed to the multiflora rose, which was initially imported from Asia in the 1800s and has become a destructive form of flora throughout Appalachia.
The ramifications of the loss of native flora and fauna can become widespread. Stranahan noted that Appalachian Ohio’s avian population has precipitously declined, including threatened species such as whippoorwills and Henslow’s sparrows who have been crowded out by development and inadequate food sources. However, there is positive news. The bobcat population has rebounded nicely after being nearly nonexistent on Arc of Appalachia land two decades ago.
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Mary Parker SonisBirds such as this wood thrush are among the beneficiaries of the large blocks of Arc-protected forests.
Arc of Appalachia moved into West Virginia last year and now manages three parcels in that state that total 2,500 acres. Stranahan noted that West Virginia is far less densely populated than Ohio, with 79% of its land mass being forested, as opposed to only 31% in Ohio, providing an opportunity to obtain and protect large unspoiled swaths of land. The organization recently purchased its first Kentucky parcel, the Grace Karst Preserve, a 110-acre parcel in Carter County.
Approximately three-fourths of the organization’s funding comes from grants from the state for conservation and environmental protection, with the remaining quarter being provided by private donors. She suggests that Arc of Appalachia’s financial stewardship requires some elasticity.
“Some years, we’re pursuing a very large parcel of land, or one that will require a lot of reforestation efforts, and other years acquisitions are more modest,” Stranahan says. “We’re grateful for the ongoing support and the trust that our donors have in us.”
She said that almost all acquisitions occur with private owners, with certain transactions requiring significant research and outreach by the organization, whereas at times sellers seek out the organization to preserve what they’ve owned.
In the near future, Arc of Appalachia aims to purchase a 5-mile-long, 1,336-acre expanse along the Gauley River in West Virginia, a popular body of water for whitewater rafters. The organization wants to preserve the area’s natural beauty for future generations.
“When you buy the land, you can own it and protect it forever,” she said. However, some key benefits can’t be measured in financial statements or data sheets.
“The more connected we are to our natural surroundings, the more satisfied people are with the world and their lives,” says Stranahan. “We have about 100,000 people walking our trails every year, and I’ve never seen a depressed person there.”
Hiking at Arc of Appalachia: There are currently 17 preserves with hiking trails and an eighteenth coming soon at
Tobacco Barn Hollow Preserve, located deep in the heart of the Appalachian hill country.
Stay in Arc of Appalachia: All of the Arc’s lodges are situated at the Highlands Nature Sanctuary in Highland County near Bainbridge, Ohio with many choices from adults only to options for groups or families that sleep up to 10.