Director of Arc of Appalachia to Speak About Ohio Forests at Southeast Ohio History Center
The Southeast Ohio History Center is presenting the final installment of its Landscape of Community 2019 Speaker Series on Thursday evening at 5:30pm on December 12th. Nancy Stranahan, the Director of the Arc of Appalachia Preserve System, will be speaking about the natural landscape: The Invisible Forest – From Backyard Forest to World Biome: Connectedness, Conservation, and the World Significance of America’s Great Eastern Forest.
According to Stranahan, our home biome, the world’s temperate broadleaf forest, is one of the most disturbed biomes on the earth, and certainly the most invisible. Although a great need exists for citizen advocacy and awareness of a biome that covers a third of our nation, most of us probably know more about deserts and rainforests than our home biome. With academic researchers focusing on greater and greater fields of narrow specialization, often at the molecular level, this cross-disciplinary presentation focuses on the world significance of on America’s Eastern Forest in a “big picture”, holistic way. The Arc of Appalachia’s primary educational mission is to inspire citizens in Ohio to identify with the living forest as their first and foremost home in the world, have a stake in the Forest’s health and future, and recognize the connectedness across the Forest’s vast geographic territory spanning three continents – thereby connecting our backyard forest with the rest of the world.
Nancy Stranahan is the Director of the Arc of Appalachia Preserve System, and was one of the non-profit’s founders in 1995. In the span of the next 20 years, Nancy has cultivated a vigorous citizen advocacy network (tree-roots as well as grass-roots) to support the purchase of 16 new natural areas in southern Ohio, amounting to over 7000 acres saved and involving over 100 real estate negotiations and closing. A few of the signature species protected in the process have been Henslow sparrows, cerulean warblers, golden star lilies, northern long-eared bats and timber rattlesnakes. The Arc has also been instrumental in saving Native American Indian ancient monuments sites, including Spruce Hill, Glenford Fort, Steel, and Junction Earthworks. The Arc’s headquarters is at the 2800-acre Highlands Nature Sanctuary, the Arc’s largest preserve region. The Arc also operates Fort Hill and Serpent Mound on behalf of the Ohio History Connection. Nancy previously served as Chief Naturalist for Ohio State Parks with the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources.
Nancy Stranahan will speak at the History Center at 24 West State Street in Athens at 5:30pm. For more information on the Landscape of Community Speaker Series or about the Southeast Ohio History Center call 740-592-2280 or visit the web at www.athenshistory.org.