Arc of Appalachia reps share presentation with Highland County commissioners

Arc of Appalachia outreach coordinator Kim Baker and Highlands Nature Sanctuary office manager Seth Oglesby met with Highland County commissioners to share updates on the organization during the commission’s Wednesday, May 22 meeting. 

Baker presented a slideshow to commissioners with facts and updates about the Arc of Appalachia, which has a mission “to preserve the beauty, balance and biodiversity of wild lands in Appalachian Ohio,” she said. “Our task is pretty straightforward. It's to buy and preserve the most intact wildlands remaining in Appalachian Ohio, preserving these wild lands and putting us into them to enjoy.”

The group began with the purchase of 47 acres of the former 7 Caves, which became what is now known as Highlands Nature Sanctuary, and has since grown to include numerous land acquisitions across Appalachian Ohio, totaling over 11,000 acres. That includes 30 nature preserves, 15 public hiking preserves and over 70 miles of hiking in 13 counties (Highland, Adams, Brown, Coshocton, Gallia, Holmes, Hocking, Jackson, Knox, Perry, Pike, Ross and Scioto), with nearly 100,000 visitors in 2023, Baker said.  

Baker gave some information on the economic impact of the organization.

“We're employing Highland County residents,” she said. “We're buying equipment, tools, supplies from Highland County. We're hiring Highland County contractors for most of our needs.

“For recreation and tourism, they're not just coming into our preserves. They're coming to other preserves and the state parks and sites. That tourism is impacting local small businesses — the restaurants, local shops, Airbnb, Amish, etc.”

Baker added that it’s also impacted other local lodging options, while the Arc is seeing an increase in visitors.

The Highlands Nature Sanctuary — which has grown to a 3,000-acre preserve — had 46,380 visitors in 2023, Baker told commissioners.  The Highlands Nature Sanctuary includes 18 hiking trails, a museum, 11 overnight lodges and a variety of educational programs and events.

“If if all those folks spent $20 while they're in the county, that would equate to just under a million dollars that would be added to the local economy,” Baker said. “Are they all spending that? Maybe not. Are some of them spending more? Absolutely. We know they're coming, we know they’re spending money, and if we can entice them to stay overnight in our area, we know they're going to spend more money.”

In other economic development updates, Baker also addressed a topic spoken about at length last summer at a commission meeting, when Arc of Appalachia executive director Nancy Stranahan stressed the need to promote what she has dubbed “Ohio’s Appalachian Front” — the hiking trails, historic sites and museums across a five-county region. 

In July 2023, Stranahan suggested that county commissioners and tourism leaders from the five-county area should plan a meeting to discuss how to “promote the Appalachian Front, because it’s going to help everybody.” In response, commissioner David Daniels said “you have to know what your ask is going to be,” as it was unclear what the commission could do to help with her plan, and he also asked about a funding source.

“She took that to heart,” Baker said. “We did this all internally, and we are providing this now as a service to our communities, to our counties. It's promoting natural, historical and World Heritage Sites, promoting regional tourism, promoting the uniqueness of what each county has to offer, and then working together makes each county stronger.”

The Arc printed 10,000 copies of a promotional flyer and map for the Appalachian Front, Baker added, as she shared some advantages of the concept with commissioners. 

“For regional collaboration, we reached out to entities with any free public access and/or trails,” Baker said. “It creates opportunities for cross-county projects, sharing resource opportunities. The organizations that we reached out to, they chose if they wanted to be a part of this, they chose how they wanted to be seen on the map. We believe sharing experts and expertise and successes between the counties can make our county stronger here and vice versa.”

The Appalachian Front promotion is based online, Baker said, so it’s “very cost-effective and easy to change when needed.” It includes an interactive map that puts all five counties (Highland, Adams, Pike, Ross and Scioto) together with corresponding links at https://www.arcofappalachia.org/appalachian-front.

“The website can be added to any promotional materials, so if any of the counties want to do placemats, magazines, posters, anything at all, you can easily add that to it,” she said. “There is a QR code. It is actually directly on the map itself or on the flyer itself, and they can download that and take them directly to the Appalachian Front site. 

“The map is interactive. It's easy to use, it consolidates all those sites into one map, and by clicking each site, clicking that link, it takes you directly to that agency’s website. Each entity manages those updates.”

The Arc of Appalachia representatives also shared information about new or expanded programming efforts over the past year.

Oglesby spoke about the “Nature Is Neat” program, which he said is held monthly from May-October and offers family-friendly activities, including a “hands-on immersive nature experience,” hiking and crafts.

“We bring in live species, so this last month we actually had a box turtle,” Oglesby said. “We got fish right out of the Rocky Fork Creek there. We released them at the end of the day, but kids and their parents could come in and actually look at all of these things, learn in the activities that we've designed and then go out and actually apply it on the trails there right at the Highlands Nature Sanctuary and the Appalachian forest. 

“It really is to promote learning and a deeper connection, but also just getting kids with their parents outdoors and having fun together.”

Oglesby added that they have been surveying guests and have found that families have been coming from all over the county to take advantage of this program.

“I really hope that it continues to grow,” he said. “I would love to be able to offer this to families more than just once a month. I'd like to see it happening at least twice to three times a month there at the Appalachian Forest Museum.”

While the Highlands Nature Sanctuary is the Arc’s “main headquarters,” Baker said a new development in the past year has been the addition of a “stewardship hub in Adams County,” made possible by a donation to the organization.

“We have someone stationed down there now to take care of all the counties in the south,” Baker said. “We're also working on starting one in Hocking County. It just makes our employees more efficient, and we are able to use our funds more efficiently that way.”

Another new addition in the past year is the Cliff Run preserve, which Baker said will be opening soon. The 300-acre preserve is on the Highland-Ross County border, just east of Paint Creek State Park, she said.

“Students from McClain High School have been out already to help plant trees there,” Baker said. “It has been a most challenging and fun trail-building expedition. They are working on a 250-foot floating bridge. 

“They have also built a 45-foot bridge over a crossing there, and it was made from channel iron beams from an abandoned trailer they found on the property.”

The Arc of Appalachia is also planning to add two new lodges, as they currently offer 11 cabins that hosted 3,000 guests in 2023, bringing in $4,677 in lodging tax and $11,602 in sales tax, Baker said.

New additions as far as personnel include Baker, as well as new education coordinator Cassidy Drummond, as both are full-time positions supported by “a very generous donor.” The Arc also has “hundreds of enthusiastic, dedicated volunteers” supporting the organization in a number of different ways, Baker said.

Other new projects in the past year have been renovating three old 7 Caves bridges and clearing 56,000 pounds of trash from the Otter Banks property in Highland County. From a nature standpoint, Baker reported that Highlands Nature Sanctuary is seeing a rebound of bat species to the area. 

Commissioners thanked Baker and Oglesby for the information.

“We appreciate all the work you've done and appreciate your presentation here today,” Daniels said.

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