Healing Land & People 2025

Healing Land and People

           With your generous support, we can continue to promote the on-going recovery of our employees and natural areas. 

NCOLC protects over 1,600 acres of land in and around Richland County. Our nature preserves are open to the public, and most have hiking trails. 

If you long for fresh air and inspiring scenery, come and walk our crown jewel, the beautiful Clear Fork Valley Scenic Trail. Connecting Butler to Malabar Farm State Park with 9 miles of hiking trails, the Clear Fork Valley Scenic Trail grants you access to local treasures, including Hemlock Falls, prairies, and award-winning old growth forests--some of which serve as living museums that remind our hikers of ancient Ohio. 

Help us support the people who keep the preserves beautiful! 

We hire recovering drug addicts and convicted felons onto our crew, and we teach them to become excellent forest land managers. They heal the land by carefully removing harmful and aggressive invasive plants to protect our bounteous displays of native flowers. While working together and alongside volunteers, they also learn to help and heal one another and themselves.

Consider donating

Our crew is indispensable in preserving our natural areas. After the tornado in the summer of 2022, our lands and trail sustained massive tree damage. This created disruptive openings for harmful opportunistic plants that we had otherwise kept at bay. Recovery from this invasion has been made possible by the tireless efforts of our crew. 

Our free, public trails represent healing: from the labor that goes into recovering the natural wonders of the lands to the connections with nature and each other that heal people. Our crew succeeds with support from you, our generous donors.

 Give yourself a well-earned break and walk our trails. Wander alongside towering trees that shelter abundant seasonal flowers, spring-fed waterfalls, and prairies that bloom from May to October. Surround yourself with all of nature’s majesty. 

If your budget permits, help us meet the payroll of our dedicated employees. They are proud of their work and glad to show you around, if you encounter them on your hike.