Natural Assets
AMERICA’S GREENEST METROPOLITAN AREA
In Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1854 description of Cincinnati as “the Queen of the West in her garlands dressed on the banks of the beautiful river,” the garlands were deciduous trees and the river was the Ohio. Today, an airborne observer will see that deciduous woodland still covers the Southwestern Ohio-Northern Kentucky-Southeastern Indiana region of the Ohio River Valley. Impressive stands of old-growth trees continue to flourish in a number of area parks and nature centers. The heavily wooded Cincinnati park system has been identified by USA Today as being one of the three best in the nation, and the 1,600-acre Cincinnati Nature Center in Clermont County is one of the largest nature centers in the country. Significant natural communities are also preserved by Cincinnati’s Hillside Trust, Lawrenceburg’s Oxbow, Inc., Western Wildlife Corridor and seven other local land trust organizations.
On the shoreline of the Ohio River, Newport Aquarium educates the public about aquatic life and the importance of stream preservation. Employees of the USEPA Andrew W. Breidenbach Environmental Research Center, the largest freshwater research facility in the world, annually partner with the Greater Cincinnati Earth Coalition to present one of the nation’s largest Earth Day programs on the Cincinnati riverfront. The city also serves as the headquarters of the Ohio River Foundation and ORSANCO, the eight-state compact that oversees water quality throughout the Ohio River watershed. About 2,000 people participate in Cincinnati’s annual Paddlefest, the nation’s largest canoe event, to celebrate the natural environment of the Ohio River. Active citizen groups effectively protect each of the Ohio River’s six major tributaries in the region, the best known of which is the Little Miami River. Of the approximately 250,000 rivers in the United States, the Little Miami is one of the 165 exceptional waterways that comprise the National Wild and Scenic River System.
Stream channels cutting into the region’s bedrock expose the world-famous marine fossils that have caused Cincinnati’s name to be appropriated for one of North America’s geologic time spans—the Cincinnatian Epoch of the Ordovician Period. Equally famous is Big Bone Lick, the “Cradle of American Paleontology” located in Boone County. Since 1739, the sediment surrounding the Lick’s salt springs has yielded the world’s first known fossils of the mastodon and four other extinct Ice Age mammals. Past and present species of the region are investigated and displayed by the Cincinnati Museum Center, continuing a tradition of environmental studies that began in 1819 with the hiring of John James Audubon, the first employee of the institution that eventually gave rise to the Museum Center. Collections of local species and fossils are also displayed and interpreted at the Behringer-Crawford Museum in Covington and the Hefner Zoology and Limper Geology Museums in Oxford.
Numerous investigations of terrestrial and aquatic ecology are carried out by local colleges and universities, three of which operate field research stations in the area. There are regional natural history interest groups for the study and conservation of trees, wildflowers, birds, fish, and amphibians and reptiles. The area’s fauna and flora have provided subject matter for locally-based nature writers such as George Laycock (North American Wildlife), John Tallmadge (The Cincinnati Arch), and Pulitzer Prize winner Josephine Johnson (The Inland Island), nature photographers such as Ron Austing and the Maslowski family, and nature artists such as Charley Harper and John Ruthven, winner of the 2004 National Medal of Arts. The regional public appreciation of animals and plants is reflected by the annual visitation of 1.2 million people to The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, the second oldest zoo in the United States.
Because of its forested landscape and river setting, Winston Churchill named Cincinnati “the most beautiful city inland in the Union.” Visitors to the Queen City region are repeatedly impressed by its extensive woodlands, free-flowing streams, abundant fossils, and nature-loving citizenry. Through the on-going efforts of individuals, institutions, and governments, Greater Cincinnati will continue to reign as the greenest metropolitan area in the nation.
