The Arc's forest preservation work lies in the Arc of Appalachia, a region located in southern Ohio on the leading edge of the Cumberland Plateau which boasts unusually rich natural diversity and an uncommonly dense native forest cover.  The Arc's first preserve region --  The Highlands Nature Sanctuary -- was founded in 1995 in the botanically and geologically rich cave region of the Rocky Fork Gorge. Among its educational services, the Highlands manages the Arc's visitor gateway -- The Appalachian Forest Museum --  which is open to the public from spring through autumn during selected hours. This beautiful preserve region, filled with springs, caves, rare plants and stunning rock cliffs, is already 2,000 acres in size and growing nearly every year.

In addition to the Highlands, twelve other preserve regions have been established along the ninety mile crescent of the Arc of Appalachia which outlines the leading edge of the Appalachian foothills. The Arc begins in the Hopewell Culture's "motherland" of  Chillicothe, Ohio. On its southern tip it extends across the Ohio River into northern Kentucky, where the Arc aspires to expand its preservation work. Over 3,000 acres of protected forests and associated Eastern ecosystems in Ohio have been conserved to date, including the acquisition of old-growth forest patches in the Highlands, one of the world's densest colonies of snow trillium (Trillium nivale) at Chalet Nivale Preserve, the only protected site for the rare Golden star lily (Erythronium rostratum) at the Gladys Riley Preserve, the wildflower-rich Ohio Bluffs Preserve on the Ohio River, and the largest remnants of tall-grass and short grass prairies remaining in southern Ohio at Kamama Prairie and Plum Run Preserves ....just to name a few of the over sixty tracts of land purchased since our inception in 1995 to piece back together wilderness and save species diversity in the East.

The Arc of Appalachia Preserve System is the result of a miraculous grass-roots volunteer effort...and is still growing. We ask you to join our efforts to buy back the trees for the sake of our native temperate forest, and join us on a variety of nature literacy courses offered by the Appalachian Forest School, including our Wilderness East field trips. You can begin to help the forest with one simple step...link up.