The Western Wildlife Corridor is celebrating Earth Day with the announcement that it's acquired 21.7 acres along Hillside Avenue, overlooking the Ohio River Valley in Delhi Township. The property will be named the William Forest Northcutt Nature Preserve after the previous owner who helped ensure it would be taken into conservation.
"We've been working on protecting these woods for over 18 months," Executive Director Matt Trokan tells WVXU. "It's over 20 acres of intact, mature hardwood forest. ... It has been a forest for over 80 years and now, thanks to our efforts, it'll be a forest forever, and future generations will be able to come and continue to appreciate nature, recreate and see wildlife and enjoy those scenic views."
The nonprofit land trust closed on the property Monday and work is slated to begin soon taking down some structures. Trokan says there will be volunteer opportunities as soon as this summer to remove invasive species like honeysuckle, do habitat restoration and complete other work preparing the land to open to the public.
"We're planning to have trails and parking for the community," he says. "It usually takes us about a year or so to get in trails, and that's something folks can help us with. We're going to be planning events to help restore the woods, put in trails and make it open to the community."
The new preserve is located near one of Western Wildlife Corridor's most popular preserves, Bender Mountain. The organization's mission is to create a more than 30 mile stretch of protected lands along the Ohio River Valley from the Mill Creek in Lower Price Hill to the Ohio/Indiana border. Since its inception in 1992, it's amassed more than 460 acres across nine preserves.
"Habitat fragmentation is the number one threat to biodiversity. So our hope is to reconnect the forest so they function healthy again and provide more benefits to wildlife and to our community," says Trokan.
Most of the areas under the corridor's care are hillsides, so Trokan says it will be nice to have some flat land at Northcutt Preserve.
"It's a really important stretch. And ... because it's flat, they could have put apartments in there. Then that would have been closed off for wildlife to access the corridor, so it was really critical to protect this piece."
Trokan says he believes this is the best use for the land.
"It's in a landslide zone, and Delhi Township has put a hillside overlay on it, a zoning variance, which was also part of the reason it was difficult to protect it. we feel the best use of the land is for greenspace," Trokan concludes.
The non-profit was able to acquire the land through donations and support from the Clean Ohio Fund.
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