The Ohio Department of Natural Resources began 2024 with a yearlong campaign to show its pride in reaching 75 years as a state agency.
The milestone will be recognized at countless events across Ohio, from distributing flyers at H2Ohio news conferences to providing anniversary cake at the Ohio State Fair from July 24 through Aug. 4 in Columbus.
Social media promotions will be augmented by many hands-on initiatives, such as an agency effort to plant at least one tree in all of Ohio’s 88 counties when the state recognizes national Arbor Day on April 26.
Ohio DNR Director Mary Mertz said in an interview last week that a book commemorating her agency’s 75th year is to be released this fall.
“I’m really excited. I love to celebrate when good things happen,” she said. “We’re looking at this as a celebration for 75 years of great work.”
The agency was created by the Ohio General Assembly in 1949, a little more than two decades before the first Earth Day in 1970.
The environmental movement of the 1960s and early 1970s is often cited as the inspiration for the creation of state and federal agencies. They include the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as well as many of the nation’s landmark environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Endangered Species Act.
But the Ohio DNR got a little bit of a head start because of its conservation focus, one which has been traced back to the John Muir’s founding of the Sierra Club in California in 1892 and the subsequent administration of Teddy Roosevelt, when he served as America’s 26th president from 1901 to 1909.
Although efforts of those two were focused mostly on the Western states, historians believe the conservation ethic that grew out of the relationship between Muir and Roosevelt inspired Midwestern scientist-writers such as Aldo Leopold and became more of a movement in this part of the country.
“ODNR is dedicated to protecting all the natural wonders that make Ohio the heart of it all,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a New Year’s Day statement. “For generations, a staff of passionate people have worked at ODNR to accomplish this mission and keep Ohio beautiful for both residents and visitors.”
Even in 2024, Ohio remains one of the nation’s few states that charge no admission fee to state park visitors.
“Our goal is to keep it that way,” Ms. Mertz said.
What it offers
The Ohio DNR’s fingerprints are over countless programs that involve conservation, recreation, public health, and the environment, too.
The agency is one of the most varied. Its many tasks include promoting western Lake Erie as a world-class fishery, maintaining hunting and fishing licenses, managing drilling and mining rights, maintaining 24 state forests, promoting water quality, enforcing boating laws, improving coastal areas, and many other tasks.
Though it didn’t become an agency until 1949, the Ohio DNR’s origins can be traced back to the creation of the Ohio Geological Survey in 1837 and all of the research and mapping of the state’s geology. That, of course, became important for extraction of oil and gas that came later.
Ms. Mertz said she has visited northwest Ohio more than other parts of the state since H2Ohio began in 2019 because the majority of wetlands funded by that program have been in this part of the state.
On her most recent visit, the morning of Dec. 20, she drove up from Columbus to designate a portion of the former Toledo House of Correction work farm as Ohio’s 145th state nature preserve, Blue Creek Limestone Glade State Nature Preserve.
The 11.3-acre site, owned and managed by Metroparks Toledo, contains a rare limestone glade that was discovered by happenstance on the much larger, 678-acre Blue Creek Metropark.
The Ohio DNR’s visibility is seen much more at other northwest Ohio sites, though.
Maumee Bay State Park in Oregon is one of the more varied, a popular site along Lake Erie for waterfront conferences, golfing, hiking, birding, swimming, tennis, kite-flying, boating, sunbathing, and other activities.
East Harbor State Park near Marblehead, Ohio, one of Ohio’s older state parks, still draws a lot of visitors but has undergone significant changes through the years because of erosion. Few people remember that its beach was once three miles long, making it one of the state’s largest draws in the 1950s and 1960s. Articles from that era talked about traffic jams as long as three miles.
The nearby Marblehead lighthouse remains one of Ohio’s biggest historical attractions.
The Ohio DNR’s Magee Marsh Wildlife Area in Ottawa County has consistently been named one of the nation’s top birding sites and is the epicenter for activities during the 10-day annual spring festival known as the Biggest Week in American Birding. It draws in thousands of birders worldwide and is one of the state’s biggest eco-tourism events.
To the west are the state-owned Goll Woods and the Maumee State Forest, two important remnants of the Great Black Swamp.
“Look how far we’ve come,” said Glen Cobb, chief of the Ohio DNR’s Division of Parks and Watercraft.
Around the state
Ohio now has 76 state parks and more than 2,000 buildings, many of which are restrooms and showers.
It also has 10,000 campsites. It is second in the country with 550 cottages and dozens of rooms at state-owned lodges.
Once the final tally comes in from 2023 attendance figures, the Ohio DNR is expected to have surpassed more than 1 million overnight stays at its state-owned facilities for the third consecutive year, Mr. Cobb said.
“We’re very proud of the legacy that others have left us,” he said. “We must remember those who started it. But the other thing is not to be complacent.”
Mr. Cobb began working for the Ohio DNR in 1984 and is in his second run as parks director. His first was during the administration of Gov. John Kasich.
“It’s a good group to work with,” he said.
He and Ms. Mertz are equally proud of investments the state is continuing to make in state parks located on the Lake Erie islands, including the former Lonz winery at Middle Bass Island State Park.
The state of Ohio purchased the island after the Lonz complex's popular terrace collapsed on July 1, 2000. One person died and 75 people were injured in what became one of the largest and most complex rescue operations in Ohio history.
The Ohio DNR reopened the winery as a museum in 2017 on the state park grounds. It put at least $6 million into stabilizing that structure, which dates back to the 1860s.
Now, it is moving into the next phase of restoring the nearby Lonz Mansion. The Ohio DNR hopes to complete that work sometime in 2026 with $5 million it has received from the Ohio General Assembly. Plans are to convert that historic structure into a combination museum and bed-and-breakfast facility.
More money for that project was raised during an invitation-only fund-raiser in August hosted by the fledgling Ohio State Parks Foundation, a private group created on Earth Day in 2021. That foundation is led by former Gov. Bob Taft, whose administration directed the acquisition of Lonz Winery and 124 acres of Middle Bass Island when Mr. Taft served as governor from 1999 to 2007.
“What we have on the islands is phenomenal,” Ms. Mertz said. “In the next four years, you’re going to see more changes up there.”
First Published January 8, 2024, 12:16 p.m.
