Saturday, March 21, 2009
The Snow Trilliums of Chalet Nivale
With a "snow" date of March 28th
Please, keep both dates free  
with Director, Larry Henry
12:30 - 2:30 pm; Hike begins promptly at 12:45 pm. No fee.
Please wear sturdy hiking shoes
Bring water, a blanket, and some snacks
To register, click here. For directions, click here.

  There are certain seasonal events so phenomenal that they are worth making a special effort to see. Such an event is the flowering of snow trilliums, a plant which blooms for for only 3-4 days each spring. At Chalet Nivale, where on a good year the trilliums cover the canyon walls like fallen star fields, it's not a display you'd want to miss. Trouble is, you never know exactly when the temperatures will rise high enough to trigger the event, and what kind of challenging weather any particular March weekend might bring. SO--we've set aside two Saturdays in March and we will pick the day that serves our goal the best. Please keep both days free. We'll be in contact with you by email as we approach the target date to let you know how things are shaping up. 
  Snow trilliums, Trillium nivale, are the smallest of all the world's trillium species, the entire plant being not much larger than a silver dollar. Snow trilliums usually grow only on the thin topsoil of limestone bluffs and adjacent floodplains, a habitat preference that explains its rarity throughout its range. We will also look for other rare plants such as leavenworthias, drabas, and early buttercups. In addition to several state endangered plant species, Chalet Nivale offers outstanding karst scenery with dolomite cliffs, caves and springs.  
 We are delighted to announce that 90 additional acres of land were added to Chalet Nivale in the summer of 2008, expanding this significant botanical preserve from 15 to 105 acres in size. Also in 2008 we established the preserve's first trail system, which we are eager to share with you on this trip. For more information on Chalet Nivale, including maps of the new addition, click here. Photos by Larry Henry.

Saturday, May 9, 2009
Orchids and Oaks at Samson Woods Preserve
with Director, Larry Henry
9:30 am – 1:30 pm; Hike begins promptly at 9:45 am. No fee.
Must be able to hike up and down hills 2.5 miles on uneven terrain
Pack water and lunch. To register, click here.
Directions will be forthcoming. Samson Woods lies in eastern Pike County, about 1.5 hours drive south of Columbus and a 2.5 hour drive east from downtown Cincinnati.

In the year 2005, John and Emily Samson donated a 70-acre forest tract to the Arc of  Appalachia Preserve System. It was a generous but emotionally difficult deed to accomplish because the tract had been in John's family for four generations, and the farm was the Samson family's original homestead. One would think John would have simply passed it on, as had his forebears, but he wrestled with a greater passion yet - to enduringly save the immense oak trees that both his father and grandfather had spared from the lumber mill before such acts were environmentally admirable. Despite the thin infertile soil covering the farm's Appalachian hills, scores of immense black oaks tower high into the canopy, boasting impressive girths. John remembered planting pine trees in the abandoned farm fields adjacent to these oak woods back in the 1960's, and today those pine trees give shade to literally hundreds of pink lady slippers and a smaller number of whorled pogonias. John is proud of the labor he expended in creating these now-mature pine plantations, but he is even prouder of the orchids, which colonized the land with no effort on his part at all! The hike will take participants off-trail into Samson Woods to see the two species of orchids and the stately old oak trees. For more information on Samson Woods, click here. Photo by Larry Henry.

Kamama Prairie is one of the rarest ecosystems in Eastern North America-- a native short-grass alkaline prairie. It's also a nature lover's paradise. Over 43 state-listed imperiled wildflower species grow at Kamama, and most bloom in the heat of the summer, with the greatest shows occurring from mid-July to mid-August. We will be hiking at the beginning of the floral season, when the prairie is most colorful. We should catch purple-headed coneflowers, scaley blazing stars, butterfly weed, and prairie coneflower in bloom. Kamama is also a treat for butterflies, and we are strategically timing this visit to catch the peak of several species of showy swallowtail species. The prairie boasts over 72 species of butterflies, one of the highest count for any 90 acre tract in the state. And that's not all. Even a beginning dragonfly lover will be able to sort out over a dozen species of this group of insects, with names that sound like characters from a sci-fi fantasy novel: widow skimmers, dragon hunters, Halloween pennants, and blue dashers. Your hike leader is John Howard, who knows Kamama and the short-grass prairie ecosystem it represents like the back of his hand. Bring a pair of binoculars if you have a pair and some water, and enjoy an introduction to one of Ohio's greatest botanical treasures. If you opt to bring a lunch you are welcome to linger after the hike and partake. Bring a picnic blanket while you are at it so you can sit down and relax. For more information on Kamama Prairie, click here.  Photo by John Howard.

 
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Tall-grass Prairie at Plum Run Preserve
with Director, Larry Henry
9:30 am – 12:30 pm; Hike begins promptly at 9:45 am. No fee.
Must be able to hike overland 2.0 miles on uneven terrain
    and possibly through tall prairie grass
Pack water. Packed lunch optional. To register, click here.
Directions will be forthcoming. Plum Run is south of Peebles in Adams County,approximately 1.5 hours from Cincinnati, and and 2.25 hours from Columbus.

Plum Run Prairie Preserve was a very exciting acquisition for the Arc of Appalachia back in 2007. Though located in the same vicinity as Ka-ma-ma Prairie Preserve, Plum Run is quite different in that instead of being a short-grass prairie, it is a tall-grass one with lots of big bluestem and Indian grass. Walking through the juniper-studded grasslands in autumn, with the heavy seed heads of big bluestem towering above one's head is a stirring experience. It transports one back in time - over two hundred years ago - before the tall-grass prairies of America's Midwest were plowed under for corn and wheat. Today, intact communities of tall grass prairies in the United States are even rarer than virgin hardwood forests, which is really saying something since less than .02% of primeval forest remains in Ohio. This hike will take you to the back “forty” of an old farm, where prairies can be found in near pristine condition. We will see the rare-for-Ohio Shumard's Oak, and the state-endangered Heart-leaved Plantain, Plantago cordata (shown left), which has almost disappeared elsewhere in the state. This highly threatened plant was down to only 12 specimens at Plum Run when we signed the deed in 2007, but we are delighted to say that 2008 turned out to be a year of recovery for the species. As we write, the count of mature plants is way up, and hundreds of new seedlings are taking root along the streambanks of Plum Run. Photos by Larry Henry.