EPN Breakfast, Program and Walking Tour

The Environmental Professionals Network presents Valuing Urban Landscapes – The Ravines of Clintonville, a dynamic program, then an optional walking tour at Glen Echo Ravine. There will be several presenters and walking tour hosts. Our overall organizer, though, is Michael Graziano, who will receive his PhD at OSU's graduation May 7. Michael does excellent science and also is active with several community groups helping people understand how residents, businesses, and streams, habitat and wildlife can prosper together.

The scenic and biodiversity-rich Olentangy River extends north for 97 miles from its confluence with the Scioto River in downtown Columbus.  It was the third scenic river designated in Ohio, including 22 miles south from the City of Delaware to just south of I-270. Northern reaches of its watershed are predominately agricultural with many villages and a few towns. The southern third of the river is heavily suburban and urban. In Columbus’ Clintonville neighborhood, just north of Ohio State University, several small tributaries extend short distances east, with steep ravine topography. The beauty and solitude of these ravines were recognized by developers and preservationists since at least the 1920s. Closely linked to the main stem Olentangy, these ravines are home to many interesting and rare plant and animal species, and are key parts of the Olentangy River ecosystem.

Attend and learn more about these amazing and important urban landscapes, who is helping protect and restore them, and then join the walking tour to see, smell, and feel these unusual-for-urban-Ohio places.