22 Years of Conservation in Central & Southern Ohio
Our Conservation Achievement
Latest News
Our 2024 Year in Review has just been published and mailed. Check out the complete document at this link. 
Upcoming Events
There are no upcoming events at this time
AOA News and Conservation Victories
Core Portions of Bison Hollow Preserve listed as an Ohio State Nature Preserve. The ODNR Division of Natural Areas and Preserves held a signing ceremony with Director Mertz and AOA representatives present for the recently announced designation of Bison Hollow Preserve as a State Nature Preserve.
Bision Hollow is one of the jewels of the distinctive Hocking Hills landscapes. It is covered in deep, older growth hardwood forests with large stands of hemlock that provide habitat for many native species that are classified as rare, threatened or endangered.
The overall Bison Hollow Preserve now consists of 1,100 acres which includes high sandstone bluffs, gorges, rock shelters and caves, waterfalls and relatively rare high quality coldwater habitat streams in both Hocking and Vinton County of southeast Ohio.
Join AOA’s stewardship team this winter (January & February, 2025) as we hike our Hocking Hills Preserve forests looking for Hemlock Wooly Adelgid infestations. Hemlock Wooly Adelgids (HWA) are small non-native insects that are a severe threat to our native Eastern Hemlocks found on AOA conservation sites across the Hocking Hills region.
If you are interested in participating in AOA’s HWA winter monitoring hikes and would like to receive more information regarding event details, please use the link below.
HWA & Volunteer List Sign Up:
https://forms.gle/KkDkwDJqKz6dMyDc8
Conservation Victories
AOA has closed on six new properties as of December 2024! These properties totaled 440 acres and included the MSM Land, Gerber (Gertude Hill Preserve) and BTG Addition- Salt Fork Narrows, Jones Addition-Bison Hollow, Ruggles Fen, and Shelly Lakes. More information on these acquisitions is published in our 2024 Year in Review.
AOA has worked with Living Carbon to plant 260,000 trees on 5 AOA properties in 2024. Thats not a typo–260,000 trees. These trees included chestnut hybrids, oaks, poplars, walnuts, sweet gum, and many other species.
AOA worked with volunteers from the Boy Scouts of America and the Izaak Walton League to plant 2,500 trees on 20 acres of the new Poston Preserve. This included the mechanical planting of 2,000 chestnut hybrids and hand planting of about 500 native trees.
