Our Mission

• We work to protect the rich diversity of life in North America’s Great Eastern Forest.

• We acquire and steward wildlands, concentrating our efforts in the Appalachian heartland.

• We create sanctuaries where people can connect with the natural world.

• We teach about our forest heritage to inspire a global conservation ethic. 

• We honor, in our work and our teachings, our Native American legacies.

The majority of the Arc of Appalachia’s preserves lie in southern Ohio – east of the leading front of the Appalachian foothills where our preservation dollars go the farthest. Here the forest-clad Appalachian foothills wash up like an emerald sea against the shores of the highly developed farmlands covering the Midwest, where the forest and associated natural communities have mostly vanished under a sea of invasive plants and human-altered landscapes. In Appalachian Ohio, where so many trees still stand, land is relatively affordable, and human populations low, the dollars we invest into preservation bring back the greatest returns – creating landscapes of hope for our native plants and animals.

The Arc is dedicated to public education and nature immersion. We steward over eighty miles of public hiking trails in our preserves, maintain the interpretive Appalachian Forest Museum free to the public, engage hundreds of volunteers, and teach courses on forest literacy and forest stewardship. 

Here at the Arc, although we may give special attention to individual species in crisis, our primary focus is on preserving the entire forest community, a community that holds tens of thousands of native species in its lifeboat. The Great Eastern Hardwood Forest, to which Ohio’s forest belongs, has been on earth for over forty million years.

Our mission is to help give this forest  – our home biome here in the Eastern United States – a future. Our tools are preservation, stewardship, education, and engaged citizens. If you are passionate about trees and the networks of life that they support, you will love what we do on their behalf. Please join us.