“Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.” 

E.O. Wilson

Professor Wilson, an American biologist, naturalist, and writer, was the Pellegrino University Research Professor Emeritus in Entomology for the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, a lecturer at Duke University, and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

He published several books and was a contributor to scientific programs on broadcast media. He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

Volunteer Stewards gather to collect native seeds summer/fall. Over 60 species of native seeds were collected and were processed into native seeds mixes late fall 2022.

Click the link below for a PDF of the list of seeds collected.

Seeds Collected 2022

Ecological Restoration

A community of volunteer stewards has been established to restore and maintain native landscapes, a process known as ecological restoration, wherever possible within the Broughton Nature and Wildlife Education Area comprised of 750 forested acres of primarily undisturbed habitat. The Area is available to the general public and organizations for education, recreation, and environmental study.

Ecological restoration focuses on repairing natural ecosystems and seeks to return them to an earlier state or to another state.

To learn more—a lot more!—type ecological restoration into the search bar of your browser. You will find plenty of information generated by many individuals, organizations, researchers, and so forth.  

To protect the natural ecosystem as much as possible in a large multi-use area, the Foundation prohibits motorized vehicles, fires, camping, digging, and asks that anyone entering the wooded area stay on the marked and mapped trails. Thanks to volunteer stewards, native plants will continue to be a feature of the Broughton Nature and Wildlife Education Area.

To learn more about the stewardship community, their plans, projects, and scheduled activities, please contact Mark Krivchenia: mark.krivchenia@gmail.com or 224.545.1604.

Read our local ER blog…

Restoration Notes From Southeast Ohio

Written by Mark Krivchenia

Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer is an American Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology; and Director, Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

She is also the author of the bestseller “Braiding Sweetgrass,” a collection of essays about nature and Native wisdom. The book weaves traditional ecological knowledge with scientific knowledge to examine the relationship people have and can have with the living environment.

Four Universal Landscape Goals

Click to read this article by Doug Tallamy

Volunteers gather to sow recently processed native seeds along the portion of the Red Trail that traverses the AEP right-of-way.

Pictured at left are volunteers sowing seeds along the portion of the Red Trail on the AEP right-of-way.

Pictured below left are volunteers who cut and burned invasive shrubs around the Carl Broughton pond. The pond is located along the ridge portion of the Red Trail near the intersection of the Blue Trail

Volunteer Stewards

Volunteer stewards have been collecting and processing seeds from many native grasses and forbs (flowering plants) at the Broughton Nature and Wildlife Education Area. This community of volunteer stewards is working to restore and maintain the native landscapes on the Preserve. By applying principles of ecological restoration, seeds can be used to repair damaged areas of our natural ecosystems and/or return them to their original states. Contact Mark Krivchenia to volunteer—224.545.1604.

For updates and information, please check our Trail Talk news feed or our Facebook page each week. 

From ODNR: STEWARDSHIP & CITIZEN SCIENCE!