The Wilds
The Wilds is a private, non-profit conservation center located on nearly 10,000 acres of reclaimed mine land in rural southeastern Ohio. It was created as the conservation center of the future by a group of civic leaders, political leaders and zoo professionals who believed that a serious scientific approach was required to find solutions to environmental concerns.
From its inception, the Wilds has been envisioned as a facility that combines cutting-edge conservation science and education programs with unique visitor opportunities. The Wilds’ conservation focuses include: animal management, scientific research, conservation education and professional training, land stewardship and habitat management, personal experience, institutional partnerships, and resource development & sustainability.
The Wilds is a private, non-profit conservation center located on nearly 10,000 acres of reclaimed mine land in rural southeastern Ohio. It was created as the conservation center of the future by a group of civic leaders, political leaders and zoo professionals who believed that a serious scientific approach was required to find solutions to environmental concerns.
From its inception, the Wilds has been envisioned as a facility that combines cutting-edge conservation science and education programs with unique visitor opportunities. The Wilds’ conservation focuses include: animal management, scientific research, conservation education and professional training, land stewardship and habitat management, personal experience, institutional partnerships, and resource development & sustainability.
LocationCumberland, Ohio
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Size10,000 acres
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C2S2 Target Species at The Wilds
Projects
Restoration ecology
Many of the reclaimed forests at The Wilds are in poor health, with low species diversity and overgrown with invasive species. The restoration department is currently working on restoring ~30 acres of forest. In order to accomplish this, invasive plant species are removed and native ones are planted in their place. Removal and replacement is a long and tedious process, but ultimately it will increase the biodiversity of the area. In addition, they intend to create native amphibian habitat by constructing two vernal pools and improving existing wetlands in the area. The end result of these combined efforts is expected to encourage more native animal and insect species to not only inhabit the area, but to thrive.
The Wilds is also seeding the land with new plant species. Traditional seed mixes used in land reclamation are not designed to create diverse habitat for wildlife, they simply aim to revegetate the land. The Wilds is looking to create more ecologically friendly seed mixes and monitored to see if sites planted with the native mix could revegetate the land as well as the traditional mix. Thus far, they have seen that mixes including native grasses and pollinator plants can definitely be successful, and that they undeniably increase native cover over traditional mixes.
C2S2 Representatives from The Wilds
Jan Ramer, DVM.Vice President
Dr. Jan Ramer is a Veterinarian and the Vice President of The Wilds. She also serves as a Director for the C2S2 Board of Directors. |
Dan BeetemDirector of Animal Management
Dan Beetem is the Director of Animal Management at The Wilds. Dan also serves as an Observer on the C2S2 Board of Directors and on the Source Population Alliance (SPA) Executive Committee. |
