Western Wildlife Corridor Collaborates
with Imago in Price Hill by
Jim Schenk IMAGO,
Inc. an ecological education organization in Price Hill, approached the Western
Wildlife Corridor about working together to preserve land in Price Hill and along
the corridor. The corridor actually makes up a good part of Price Hill, which
includes Mt. Echo Park, and the land between Mt. Echo and Emshoff Park. WWC and
IMAGO have each committed $6,000 for the year 2000 toward hiring a staff person
to help with land preservation. The first three months have proven to be an exciting
time. Ajoint committee of Western Wildlife Corridor members and IMAGO members
has been formed to work together on this project. Meg Riestenberg. David Myer
and Ron Kruse are representing the Western Wildlife Corridor. Pam Jacobson, Chris
Clements and Jim Schenk represent IMAGO. A
committee has been set up in Price Hill to focus on the preservation of land in
that neighborhood. A list of all land owners who own 2 or more of land in Price
Hill has been compiled. Over
120 land owners fit into this category. Land owners with 5 acres or more
are being compiled for the rest of the corridor.
The next step is to contact the larger
land owners and let them know the opportunity that exists for preserving their
land for future generations. A letter has been sent to the largest land owners
in Price Hill, and follow-up contacts are planned.
Personal contacts are the best
way to approach land owners. If you know someone along the corridor or in Price
Hill who owns a large piece of land, please let us know. You could help us determine
the best way to approach this person. It is an exciting time for the Westem Wildlife
Corridor! We are gaining momentum on preserving this beautiful land along the
river. Western
Wildlife Corridor Joins the Land Trust Alliance In
February the Western Wildlife Corridor was accepted to be a member of the Land
Trust Alliance the national organization of land conservancies. Founded in 1982,
LTA provides leadership, information skills and resources to the 1,227 local,
regional and national land trusts across the nation. Its sole mission is to strengthen
the land trust movement, helping to ensure that land trusts conserve land for
the benefit of communities and natural systems. Devin
Schenk, Western Wildlife Corridor’s environmental science intern feels that membership
in such a influential and successful organization will significantly add to the
Corridor’s mission. “Besides offering valuable technical support, LTA will put
us in touch with hundreds of groups that are similar to the Western Wildlife Corridor
and keep us on the pulse of the conservation field.” Throughout
the county, organizations like the Corridor are using tools such as conservation
easements to help landowners preserve their family lands for their children and
grandchildren. Often times, when land owners pass away, the Estate taxes that
their heirs are forced to pay can be so much that they are forced to sell the
land to pay them. With a conservation easement this burden can be avoided and
the land can continue to stay in the family. Tools such as conservation easements
are being used to great success across the country. To date local and regional
land trusts have protected approximately 4.7 million acres of wetlands, wildlife
habitat, ranches and farms, shorelines, forests, recreation land and other property
of ecological significance. Membership
in the Land Trust Alliance will assure that the Western Wildlife Corridor will
continue to grow and protect land along our wooded corridor that runs from Mt.
Echo Park in Price Hill to the Indiana state line.
Delhi Man Into
Green By Forrest Sellers Originally printed in Delhi Press Wednesday, March
1, 2000 Delhi
Township businessman Ron Kruse is green, but its not with envy or inexperience.
Kruse was recently appointed director of land preservation for the Western Wildlife
Corridor (WWC). It’s almost like coming full circle for the former Delhi trustee.
Several years ago he was instrumental in getting the Five Points Park built at
Neeb and Rapid Run roads. He
plans to cut back on some of his business work to devote time to the WWC. He said
he will work with WWC in developing a direction and work plan. One
of Kruse’s goals is to promote green space in Delhi, Price Hill, and along the
Western Wildlife Corridor, which extends from Price Hill to North Bend (sic).
As these areas become more urbanized, “green space becomes more important for
quality of life,” he said. “The corridor will work with any groups to help develop
pocket parks or recreational areas.” He
said that maintaining a certain amount of green space is important. “As cities
grow and develop, a certain amount of green space makes for better living (conditions),
otherwise we become wall to wall concrete and blacktop.” Devin
Schenk, an intern for the WWC. said the organization will benefit from Kruse’s
involvement. “Ron has shown the ability to reach out to people, and that is a
really important qualification for performing in his position (as director),”
he said. “He also has a strong dedication for green space in Delhi and Western
Hills.” Schenk
said Kruse’s work on Five Points Park demonstrated not only his enthusiasm, but
his ability to gct others involved. “I think through his expertise he is going
to be able to lead projects that will preserve greenspace. he said. “With Five
Points Park, he’s proven himself as someone who can get people excited about a
cause. Kruse
said Five Points Park was spear-headed by former Delhi Fire Chief Don Ohmer. who
wanted to use the area for the recognition of fire department personnel. “We didn’t
think about money, we just started ,“said Kruse. He said everyone involved in
the project came through. More than 100 volunteers helped in the construction
of the park. “He’s
a very energetic and dedicated person.” said Dave Myers, a friend who has worked
with Kruse in the WWC and the Delhi Land Conservancy. “He has a lot of good ideas,
and what he thinks is right he will go after.” In
addition to preparing a plan for the WWC. Kruse hopes to establish a solid volunteer
base in the organization. “I think everyone can work together to keep a balance
between green space and development,” he said. “We’ll all be happier in the long
run.” Land
Preservation: Why, What For, and How? By Ron Kruse Why?
As communities become more urban, we must look to the future and try to envision
what we may become, wall to wall homes, businesses, and wider and wider roads
to connect everything together. Growth will happen. How it happens can be influenced
by all of us and through the work of WWC and IMAGO, and with everyone’s help,
(residents, businesses, developers. etc.) we can make a difference.
What for?
As our communities become more urban. we must work and plan just to maintain
some of what attracted us to the area — Green Space. Once Green Space is lost
it is gone forever, so our involvement is now and forever. Maintaining open land
and working landscapes no matter how small, is important for our communities.
It protects our health and welfare, enhances quality of life. preserves our heritage
and makes economic sense. It is important that we work together encouraging land
conservation, for the betterment of our communities and the environment now and
especially for the future. To see the importance of conservation take a look back
10, 20, 40 years, and remember what our community looked like compared to today.
This encourages all of us to be concerned about how we would like our community
to be in 10. 20. 40 more years. We can all make a difference, it only takes a
little effort now compared to the immense task of creating green space once its
lost. No one can project the future. but we can help shape how it looks.
How?
There are many methods to preserve the precious Western Wildlife Corridor.
We will be focusing on conservation easements, education, and community empowerment.
Conservation easements, a tool increasingly used by land trusts to permanently
protect open spaces, has proven to be reliable and beneficial through tax incentives,
grants, etc. Conservation easements offer a flexible land protection tool that
will protect land forever. The property is still privately owned and can be lived
on, but in the easement, which is tailored to each owner’s particular needs, they
are free to specify what restrictions to put on the use of the land.
WWC is a member
of the Land Trust Alliance and through their experience and information and your
help we will establish a system by which we will be able to promote and support
land conservation throughout the Western Wildlife Corridor. Your
involvement, through a donation of time, money or knowledge, will help in the
progress to enhance our environment for the future.Western
Wildlife Gets a New Office And New Mailing AddressAs
a WWC Board member and the new Land Protection Director, Ron Kruse has done a
lot of good things for the Corridor. With a donation of office space and a computer,
he has now done us all another favor. Ron, a long time Delhi businessman, is part
owner of KLR Associates, Inc. KLR Associates is a food service planning and design
firm that helps design kitchens all over the country. The office building is located
on Delhi Road, near St. Dominic Church. From here, WWC’s intern has been working
with Ron to initiate our Land Protection Program. We have also been using the
space to hold Board meetings and store the mounds of information the WWC has saved
and produced over the last ten years. We
want to take this time to thank Ron and KLR Associates for the generous donation.
If you call the WWC office, please be aware that we also share the phone with
KLR (513-244-2250). If a stranger answers the phone. please be courteous,
they are simply KLR staff. Just ask for Ron or Devin and they will connect you
right away.
Cincinnati Greenways Plan
Many of you may be aware of the comprehensive
Greenways Plan that The Cincinnati Park Board has been working on for the last
few years. This project is a progressive movement to produce a greenways plan
for Cincinnati. The proposed greenways would connect important cultural centers,
parks, and residential areas with bicycle and pedestrian paths. Also included
in this plan are wildlife corridors, including the Western Wildlife Corridor.
Doug Fraser, a Park Board landscape architect has agreed to offer our organization
technical information and advice. We are hoping also to form a relationship that
will guarantee that the Western Wildlife Corridor receives legitimate consideration
in the Greenways Plan. Spring Wildflowers
by Devin Schenk Spring wildflowers
are truly fantastic! They are incredibly colorful, very diverse, and their life
cycles are quite interesting. Spring wildflowers although delicate in appearance,
are a hardy bunch of plants. They are the first plants to emerge from the ground
in the early spring. They fight their way to the surface in newly thawed soil,
struggle through frosts and late snowstorms long before any of the trees or shrubs
have woken up from their winter dormancy and produced leaves.
There is a specific reason why these wildflowers grow during such harsh
conditions: Sunlight. The extensive canopy of leaf-laden trees in the summer robs
a great deal of the sun’s light, darkening the forest floor. Some plants are shade
tolerant, meaning they can survive under the umbrella of the tall forest trees.
However, they are slow growers. Spring wildflowers, on the other hand, come up
before the trees leaf out. and therefore get the benefit of full sunshine. These
plants grow quickly, flower, pollinate, go to seed. and die before most plants
can even begin to grow. These early flowers are not
only important to wildlife as food, and to us for their beauty. they also are
important to the overall health of the forest. Spring wildflowers absorb large
amounts of nutrients from the soil as they grow. These nutrients have leached
out of the decomposing leaf litter that accumulated in the fall. These nutrients
are very important to the plants of the forest, but can easily be washed away
in spring rains. The spring wildflowers stop this by taking the nutrients and
storing them in plant tissues. Most of these nutrient-rich wildflowers then die
after their quick lifecycle is completed. They decompose and the nutrients are
then available to the other forest plants. This is a very efficient cycle that
would be severely hurt if the spring wildflowers were not there to stop the nutrients
from washing away in the spring showers.Spring Wildflower Walk Please come join
us on April 16 to explore more about these wonderful plants! Everyone is welcome.
The walk will be at Old Delhi Road (Sisters Hill). Parking will be available at
Mt. St. Joseph College. Call us at 244-2250 for directions and to tell us if
you are coming.