BROWN COUNTY — A southwest Ohio land conservancy is in a race against the calendar. The Arc of Appalachia has until November 30 to raise the pledges needed to buy 98 acres of forest along the East Fork of the Little Miami River in Brown County — or watch the land go to the open market, where the group says it will most likely be sold for private recreational development.
The property, which the Arc calls the East Fork Oxbow, protects more than two miles of shoreline along the river about 45 minutes east of Cincinnati. It is almost entirely forested, under a canopy of roughly 40-year-old oaks, hickories, maples, sycamores, beech, and walnuts, and it is known for abundant and diverse spring wildflower displays, according to the Arc of Appalachia.
The full project cost is $749,000. As of the Arc’s latest campaign update, pledges had covered about 50.8 percent of that total, leaving $368,284 still to raise. There are no grant opportunities available to help this time, the Arc says — 100 percent of the cost has to come from pledges by November 30, and pledges will be called in during the week of December 7 only if the goal is met.
“We have been in the wildlands preservation field for over 31 years, and we have never seen a purchase opportunity of this caliber on the East Fork of the Little Miami,” the Arc of Appalachia says on its campaign page. Staff visited the property just days after learning it was about to be listed for sale and submitted an offer the next day, contingent on raising the money by the deadline.
If the purchase succeeds, the East Fork Oxbow would become the Arc’s second preserve in Brown County, and the first there with what the group hopes will be a public nature trail. The land lies just two miles west of the existing 70-acre East Fork Riparian Reserve, an initiative of the Clermont Soil and Water Conservation District, the Clinton County Park District, and other watershed partners — meaning the new preserve would extend an already-growing corridor of protected riverfront.
The Arc of Appalachia, headquartered in Bainbridge in Highland County, has spent three decades buying and protecting wildlands across Appalachian Ohio, building a system of nature preserves and hiking trails that draws visitors from across the region. Its emergency campaigns are structured so donors risk nothing if a project fails: pledges are only collected when the fundraising goal is reached in time.
The clock is now the story. With the November 30 pledge deadline three weeks away and just over half the money raised, the next three weeks will decide whether the East Fork Oxbow becomes a permanent public preserve or returns to the market. Information on the campaign and how to pledge is available from the Arc of Appalachia.
Photo: Moofpocket, CC BY 2.5