Native Plant Rescue

The habitat of threatened and endangered plants in Wayne National Forest are soon to be bulldozed in preparation for paving the Highway 33 bypass around Nelsonville, Ohio. Rural Action, Hocking College and Frontier are collaborating with Wayne National Forest to rescue these botanical resources by digging them up ahead of the bulldozers and moving them to holding beds where they will be sheltered for future restoration projects in Wayne National Forest.

Frontier is supporting this project with a New Frontier Foundation grant that will match all donations to the project dollar-for-dollar, up to $10,000. In addition, we're trying our best to publicize the project -- here on our web site, in our newsletters, at events such as the Kickapoo Country Fair and our own Co-op-Palooza, and in any other way we can think of. We're also selling t-shirts, which bring in money for the project as well as help publicize it.

Our attractive Plant Rescue t-shirts are now available online as well as at events like Kickapoo and Co-op-Paloosa. Of the $20 price, everything that is left after the cost of the shirt and printing goes to the Native Plant Rescue project -- that's about $12 added to the fund for every shirt sold. Show your support and look good too.

Besides buying a t-shirt, there are three ways you can contribute to this effort: 1) sign up to bring your shovel to rescue plants with us (there will be a number of different digs this fall), 2) donate time to help the project in other ways, like spreading the word about it, or 3) support the plant rescue with a financial contribution. (Remember, because of the New Frontier Foundation grant, your contribution is worth double!)

To contribute to Native Plant Rescue, simply click on the link(s) indicating the way(s) you'd like to help. Rural Action will contact you to acknowledge and follow up on your commitment or pledge.

I'd like to dig

I'd like to donate my time

I'd like to donate money

Find more information on the Rural Action website.

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Background

The Wayne National Forest is currently in the process of having a Nelsonville, OH Route 33 Bypass constructed through the national forest by the Ohio Department of Transportation. This area is rich in native plant diversity and many local plant botanists/enthusiasts have expressed concern over the impending loss of large numbers of plants. If it were not for the dedication of Rural Action staff, in collaboration with Wayne National Forest staff and other local partners, the Ohio Department of sTransportation would simply destroy all plants where the highway is to be constructed. Rural Action is in the process of contracting, through a Forest Stewardship contract, with the U.S. Forest service to design, organize, and coordinate a native plant save. Rural Action intends to mobilize approximately 100 local volunteers to participate in this native
plant save, which will move national forest plants to holding areas also on the national forest and other research and education sites throughout the region. The holding areas will be used for educational and transplanting opportunities into the future.

As of March 2006, contractors had begun to cut down a wide swath of trees through the Wayne National Forest in order to clear a path for a four-lane U.S. Route 33 bypass around Nelsonville, OH. The Wayne National Forest comprises approximately 238,000 acres in three districts in southeastern Ohio. The Nelsonville bypass project is more than 8.5 miles long with widths ranging from 350 to 1,400 feet. The bypass project includes two connector roads that will also cut through the forest to connect the bypass to the existing U.S. Route 33. The sum total of forestland that will be affected is a minimum of 741 acres, most of it oak-hickory forest.

Typically, this type of work on U.S. Forest Service land would result in all money generated going straight to the federal treasury. The U.S. Forest Service has approached Rural Action to engage in a Forest Stewardship Contract that will allow the money to remain in economically depressed southern Appalachian Ohio. Under this Forest Stewardship Contract, the first of its kind in this region, the Wayne can turn the timber, or the money generated from selling the timber, over to local entities which can then be used to provide needed maintenance and other types of services in the forest. Rural Action has proposed conducting a large-scale native plant save in the swath of land that will become the bypass.

Unfortunately, the bypass project has been delayed several times, meaning the Forest Stewardship Contract has also been delayed. In spite of this, and in keeping with our mission of environmental justice through citizen participation, we have already completed the first of a minimum of three plant save volunteer days. The first day was 20 May, 2006 and more than 20 volunteers participated in saving some 300+ native plants. The plants were dug up from the bypass corridor and replanted into a holding bed for future restoration projects on the Wayne. This work helps to retain plants of similar genetic stock as what would naturally grow in the restored area, providing greater adaptability to that site. In addition, by using native plants adapted to this region, invasive plants will more likely be excluded from these restoration sites.

The mixed mesophytic forests in Central Appalachia are among the most diverse temperate forests in the world. The understory is diverse and the majority of North American commercially traded medicinal herbs are native to this area of the world. In addition, this forest provides crucial habitat for many neotropical migratory birds. Rural Action is highly regarded in southeastern Ohio as an organization that specializes in mobilizing local people to participate in natural resource conservation, education, and maintenance.

According to a recent publication from the Nature Conservancy, today Ohio's forests cover more than 8 million acres, more than 30 percent of the land. Ohio's Appalachian forest is part of the oldest and most biologically diverse forest system in North America. This forest, at its best, will harbor a rich array of flowering and medicinal plants, dozens of tree species, a plethora of both game and non-game wildlife, all of which are interdependent. Approximately 95 percent of the state's woodlands are privately owned. In recent years, those lands have been sold with greater frequency and some of our largest privately-owned forests are being broken up into small parcels. More than half of our private forests are owned by individuals and most woodland owners control fewer than 50 acres.

Photo credits: Stephanie Craddock and Phil Siegrist, Rural Action

Help dig
If you are in the Ohio area (or planning a vacation), you may want to help out by spending a weekend this fall or next spring digging plants. The following dates are currently planned:

Saturday August 26
Plant Rescue

Saturday September 9
Plant Rescue

Saturday October 14
Herb Day

To learn more, please call: 740-742-4401 or 1-800-351-5074.

Donate time
Or, no matter where you live, you can help out by letting your friends or groups in your area (garden clubs, environmental groups etc.) who might be interested in helping out.

Donate money
Help Rural Action get the $10,000 matching grant from the Frontier Foundation with their contributions. Each dollar donated is worth $2 in plant rescue funds.

You can also purchase a Plant Rescue organic cotton T-shirt. T-shirts are $20.00 each, $12.00 of which goes directly to Rural Actions Rescue fund ($8.00 covers cost of the t-shirt). And when you wear your Plant Rescue T-shirt, you create the opportunity to tell others how they can participate.