One of the largest native seed nurseries in Ohio is growing.
Great Parks of Hamilton County has started construction on an $11 million improvement project at Shaker Trace Nursery in Miami Whitewater Forest.
“It'll open up a lot of opportunities for us to expand our offerings of what we can do at the nursery — seed and live plant offerings to the public and to our regional partners for restoration,” Natural Resource Manager Kari Horn said.
For decades, Great Parks has used the nursery to grow plants that are used throughout Hamilton County to restore prairies and native landscapes.
The project will bolster the nursery's operations in new facilities powered by on-site solar panels. And the buildings are designed to achieve LEED Certification from the U.S Green Building Council.
“The whole project has been designed to reduce waste, save energy and build in a way that's friendly to the environment, including other species that were using the space before the design,” Horn said.
For example, the centuries-old barn that’s on the property currently houses big brown bats.
Great Parks is planning to renovate the barn into a place for events and educational programs. But it’s still trying to save spaces for bat habitat.
“[We’re] working with local researchers who have helped us understand how ... that might be important and how we might be able to preserve that while we restore and refurbish the space,” Horn said.
A smaller, but similarly historic barn on the property had to be torn down as part of the construction. Horn says crews didn’t demolish the structure though.
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Instead, they removed the nails and boards one by one, so they would be able to repurpose the materials.
“Our herpetologist on staff was able to take the tin off the roof and cut it into pieces — he's using that as cover boards for snake surveys, for reptile surveys,” Horn said.
What do the improvements include?
Great Parks is expanding its native seed growing capacity with the addition of drying, processing and storage facilities as well as a new greenhouse.
“We have been operating, I would say, fairly well given the size of the hoop house that we have,” Horn said. “With this expanded greenhouse, we're going to be having a lot more room and a lot more efficiency and use of water, and we'll be able to grow year-round instead of just seasonally.”
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Horn says public accessibility is another focus of the improvements.
Great Parks is adding a spur off the Shaker Trace Outer Loop Trail so bikers, walkers, and hikers can come to the nursery right off the path. It is building a parking lot too, Horn says.
The project is funded in part by a levy approved by Hamilton County voters in 2021 to support master plan initiatives.
Construction is expected to continue through fall 2025.
Grassroots origins
Volunteers and Great Parks employees established Shaker Trace Nursery in the early 1990s.
Leaders in the park system wanted to grow native seeds that were adapted to Hamilton County’s climate to meet a need at the nearby Shaker Trace Wetlands.
“We wanted to restore these farm fields to wetlands and prairie, but we didn't have a local source for seed,” Horn said.
So, the crews set out, loading up in vans and carrying empty bags, to go harvest seeds from within 100 miles of Hamilton County.
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Horn says the group would go to old cemeteries and railroad right of ways that were not being developed for agriculture or housing.
“We collected those seeds, and we brought them back to the nursery and grew them out,” Horn said.
Today, Great Parks produces more than 200 species at Shaker Trace. They’re planted throughout the county — including at the Shaker Trace Wetlands.
“When you're on your bike, or you're hiking on the trails at Whitewater and you're looking around at the beautiful prairies and wetlands that are in those areas — all that sourced plant material came from Shaker Trace Nursery,” Horn said.