Western Wildlife Corridor

It’s Finally Here-Tomorrow, April 27th is our 9th Annual Flower-A-Thon!

Mary P — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 01:39:54 +0000

“The Earth laughs in flowers.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Join our celebration of Spring as WWC presents the 9th annual Flower-a-thon on Saturday, April 27th. This years “wildflower quest” includes a flexible menu of nature walks, food and fun for the whole family. Our veteran wildflower enthusiasts will guide you to woodland sites adrift with native species including Shooting star, Drooping trillium, Blue-eyed Mary and many others. This is also an excellent opportunity for you to see some of the many WWC nature preserves.

Join us at 8 a.m. for a Panera bagel breakfast at Embshoff Park and a wildflower walk. We will be then taking wildflower hunting walks at other locations iincluding our beautiful Delshire Preserve. A 1 p.m. walk on “Bender Mountain” trail will give you an opportunity to observe, not only beautiful native wildflowers, but also panaoramic views of the Ohio River Valley and Kentucky hillsides. After meeting on Bender Road, we will also hike at other great locations in the afternoon.

To round out the day please join us at EarthConnection, on the campus of Mount St. Joseph College, at 5 p.m. to enjoy a lasagna buffet . A wildflower presentation will be given by Denis Conover, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Cincinnati. Everyone is welcome and we hope to see you on April 27th!

A $15 fee pays for the breakfast and the evening dinner.

This is our biggest fund raiser of the year! Donations will enable us to continue our important mission to purchase, preserve and protect precious hillside habitat along the Ohio River now, and for future generations. For more information on this event (e.g., reservations, donations and accessibility) please call: 513-922-2104.

For more information on our WWC mission, project

s and activities please visit our website: www.westernwildlifecorridor.org

7th Annual Wildflower Festival a Success

Mary P — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:53:46 +0000

Here is a pictorial account of nature loving families enjoying flowers, food and fun at the Western Wildlife Corridors Wildflower Festival on April 6th at the College of Mount Saint Joseph on the Ohio.

Delshire Hike April 13, 2013

Mary P — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:10:02 +0000

An afternoon hike in the Delshire Preserve treated wildflower enthusiasts with bounteous, beautiful, buds and blooms!

Habitat Restoration At Shady Lane Preserve this Saturday- Help us whack the wicked weed…

Mary P — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:34:48 +0000

Western Wildlife Corridor project

The next habitat restoration project of the year will be at the Shady Lane preserve this coming Saturday, April 20, from 9am to noon. For this project we will meet at the wide grassy area opposite the house at 3005 Shady Lane, .6 mile from River Road (this is the house that has two deer statues in the front yard). We can park there and also on Aston Lakes Dr. which goes off Shady Lane a little past 3005 Shady Lane and on your left as you’re coming from River Road.

At this project we will clear the cursed Amur honeysuckle! Bring work gloves, plenty of water and wear work clothes and work shoes.

Please call me at 513 922 2104 for additional information.

Here are the rest of the projects and other events we have scheduled this spring, for your future enjoyment! Watch your emails for details.

April 27, half day or all day
Eighth Annual Flower-a-thon. Great chance to hike the corridor.

May 4, 9 am to noon
Habitat restoration
Beekley Preserve

May 18, 9 am to noon
Habitat restoration
Voss Preserve

June 8, 9 am to noon
Habitat restoration
Anders Court Preserve

June 15, 9 am to noon
Habitat restoration
Buckeye Trace Preserve

Mark your Calendars-9th Annual Flower-a-thon April 27th!

Mary P — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:24:50 +0000

“The Earth laughs in flowers.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

A $15 fee pays for the breakfast and the evening dinner.

For more information on our WWC mission, project

s and activities please visit our website: www.westernwildlifecorridor.org

Great News! The Wildflower Festival is This Friday…

Mary P — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 04:12:49 +0000

Read All About It! April 5th Wildflower Festival Article in Delhi Press

Mary P — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:26:28 +0000

Article in Delhi Press

Spring has sprung and to celebrate the Western Wildlife Corridor is teaming up with the College of Mount St. Joseph to host the seventh annual Wildflower Festival 6-9 p.m. Friday, April 5, at the college gymnasium.

Admission is free to the festival and there will be many activities for children and adults to enjoy, Western Wildlife Corridor President Tim Sisson said.

“It’s a great opportunity to learn the resources of the region,” he said. “There will be native plants and wildflowers for sale, information about how to be energy efficient, raffles, a painting class, crafts, pottery and activities for kids.”

Western Wildlife Corridor artist Sally Anderson will demonstrate how to paint wildflowers and a chipmunk. The class is free, but people should register before the festival.

Fundraising chairwoman and Sisson’s sister Rebecca said there will be 45 vendors and food can be bought in the college’s food court.

“This year we’re incorporating more craft vendors,” she said. “There will be natural jewelry, butterfly wing jewelry, silk prints and sculptures.”

Tim Sisson said the Western Wildlife Corridor has a good relationship with the college and their teamwork has helped make the event successful. This is the second year they’ve had the event at the College of Mount St. Joseph.

“We started out in the Delhi Lodge and then we moved to the senior center and then that became too small, we outgrew it, and we moved over to the college,” he said.

Involved with the Wildflower Festival is the College of Mount St. Joseph’s Environmental Action Committee.

“The Environmental Action Committee seeks out and welcomes partnerships, across the campus and within the community, because, most simply, we are all in this together,” committee member Bill Lonneman said. “If we’ve learned anything from both our faith traditions and the ecology movement it is that all life is interconnected and the best way to ensure a thriving environment is to recognize that fact and work together for the common good of all.”

In the meantime, Tim Sisson said the Western Wildlife Corridor is hard at work to make sure the Wildflower Festival is a success.

“We’re expecting a big crowd,” he said.

The group is still accepting vendors for the festival. Vendors should have a green or natural product or something nature oriented, Rebecca Sisson said. Fees are $25 for exhibitors, with a suggested donation of 10 percent of the proceeds to Western Wildlife Corridor. For more information or to sign up, call Rebecca Sisson at (859) 512-1983 or email rsisson654@zoomtown.com.

To register for the free painting class, call 353-2708. Visit www.westernwildlifecorridor.orgfor information about the festival and the Western Wildlife Corridor’s upcoming events.

New Property Acquired-Buckeye Trace in Sayler Park

Mary P — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:16:10 +0000

Due to the dogged determination of our fearless leader we now own the Buckeye Trace Property! Read about the acquisition of this great property in this Delhi Press story:

The Western Wildlife Corridor has secured its 10th property with the purchase of 15.7 acres at 6446 Hillside Avenue in Sayler Park.

The nonprofit, which has a mission to preserve greenspace in the Ohio River valley, is naming the site Buckeye Trace.

“We’ve been eying this land since 2006,” Western Wildlife Corridor President Tim Sisson said. “There’s a heavily wooded forest with nice mature trees and a meadow.”

He said that the group tried to purchase the land when it was for sale in 2006 but before they could get money together for an offer, it sold. The land went back up for sale last fall.

The wildlife corridor paid $80,000 for the land, $59,000 of which they secured through a Clean Ohio Conservation Grant and the Hamilton County Park District paid $5,000 to purchase a conservation easement. The remaining $16,000 came from donations to the corridor’s land acquisition fund and membership money, Sisson said.

Wildlife Corridor board member John Klein said it was important to secure grants and other funding for the property.

“It’s a way to stretch our budget dollars,” he said.

The former property owners installed a gravel driveway through the center of the property which Sisson said the wildlife corridor will use as a hiking trail. He added that they will likely build a trail off that drive and loop it back to make a longer trail.

But before they can build trails, the wildlife corridor has some cleaning up to do.

“It’s important to return the property to a real natural state,” he said. “Honeysuckle eliminates other plants and produces a chemical that inhibits growth. We’re going to go in and clear the honeysuckle out, garlic mustard and other invasive alien plant species.”

Sisson said he will be enlisting the help of volunteers to clean up the site.

“We’re an all-volunteer organization. Even I’m a volunteer,” he said. “Over the last few years we’ve had more than 100 people volunteering to maintain our preserves.”

Klein said that the volunteer base stays active throughout the year.

“We really get involved and get our hands dirty,” he said. “Every week we clear unwanted plants from our preserves for habitat restoration.”

Sisson said he is happy that the organization can help preserve so many sites.

“We have so much to offer,” he said. “Our sites are open to the public for hiking, birding and for people to take photos. This really fulfills our mission of preserving greenspace.”

For more information about the wildlife corridor, visit www.westernwildlifecorridor.org or call 921-9453.

If you have Cabin Fever-the Wildflower Festival on April 5th is the Cure!

Mary P — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 20:16:27 +0000

Click for Delhi Press Article in Delhi Press

Throw off those winter doldrums and join us at the 7th Annual WWC Wildflower Festival on April 5th from 6-9 p.m.in the gymnasium at the College of Mount Saint Joseph.

This “new and improved” Western Wildlife Corridor event celebrates the joys of Spring and has it all going on:

*More vendors, with a bigger selection of native plants, hand-crafted items and nature organizations to check out.

*You’ll learn how to attract butterflies to your garden and be able to purchase flowers and plants that will entice these beauties to your yard.

*We’ll also offer a variety of native wildflowers for your home garden to create a woodland paradise for those hard to grow shady areas.

*For the children there will be a variety of fun games, hands on crafts and other activities to stimulate your child’s interest in the natural world.

*To bring out your inner artist you can learn how to paint wildflowers and cute chipmunks at a a free watercolor workshop taught by our artist-in-residence, Sally Sisson Anderson.

*Learn everything you ever wanted to know about chipmunks, but were afraid to ask, at a special lecture by John Klein, a retired Land Manager for the Hamilton County Parks System

The Wildflower Festival will again be held at our bigger and better venue at the College of Mount St. Joseph in the Gymnasium. Ample parking will be provided nearby. The college is at the junction of Neeb and Delhi Roads in Delhi Township.

Won’t you join us for what promises to be our best Wildflower Festival ever!

Spring 2013 Newsletter

Mary P — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 04:16:08 +0000

To View Newsletter-Click Here: newsletterSpring2013