Ohio Governor Mike DeWine named 2024 the “Year of Ohio State Parks” to mark the 75th anniversary of the state’s park system.
This year is also the 75th anniversary of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the state agency that oversees parks and wildlife, as well as resources like minerals, oil and gas.
The state legislature created the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in 1949.
ODNR Chief of Communications Andy Chow said that before that, the state had hundreds of different stewardship and conservation policies.
“Yet it was just kind of all put together in sort of a kaleidoscope of policies,” Chow said. “The real goal of 1949 with the ODNR was to create one, unified voice for conservation policies, for conservation laws.”
The department started with seven divisions, including the divisions of parks and watercraft, forestry, water, wildlife and geological survey, which all still exist today.
“So, there are so many different things that were top priorities 75 years ago that are still top priorities today at ODNR,” Chow said.
The other five departments that make up ODNR today are the departments of coastal management, engineering, mineral resource management, natural areas and preservation, and oil and gas resources management.
ODNR owns and manages more than 800,000 acres of land, including 24 state forests, almost 150 nature preserves and 150 wildlife areas. ODNR also manages 7,000 miles of streams, more than 480 miles of the Ohio River and 2.25 million acres of Lake Erie. It licenses all hunting, fishing and watercraft in the state.
75 years and 75 parks
But ODNR is perhaps best known as the steward of Ohio’s state parks. Several state parks were created in 1949 at the same time as ODNR, Chow said. One of the first parks was Buckeye Lake State Park in Fairfield, Licking and Perry counties.
ODNR now oversees 75 state parks and will soon open its 76th. Great Council State Park will be in Xenia and could open as early as this spring.
Chow said the measure of success for a park varies. Some attract large numbers of people every weekend. Others provide unique experiences.
And Ohio’s diverse landscape provides plenty of opportunity: from the rolling hills of Appalachia to the streams and rivers and up to Lake Erie. Chow pointed to Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park in Portage County in northeast Ohio and Salt Fork Lake in Guernsey County as examples of parks with very different geography.
“Depending on what part of the state you’re in, you can enjoy something different at our state parks, and I think that’s a uniqueness that Ohio can provide to people,” Chow said.
"There are so many different things that were top priorities 75 years ago that are still top priorities today at ODNR."- ODNR Chief of Communications Andy Chow
ODNR’s next mission
Among ODNR’s more recent responsibilities is the restoration of wetlands around Ohio. DeWine launched the H2Ohio initiative in 2019 with an aim to improve water quality around the state and especially in the Lake Erie basin.
Since then, ODNR has finished or is in the process of restoring 170 wetlands, Chow said.
“They sort of soak up the runoff like a sponge to make sure that nutrients and sediment don’t go directly into our waterways,” Chow said of the wetlands. “They go a long way in protecting our water and improving our water quality, but they also restore habitat for different wildlife.”
And ODNR is celebrating its 75th birthday all year. The Division of Geological Survey will lead a series of hikes at four of ODNR’s original state parks. The hikes will include information about Ohio’s geological history and the state’s flora and fauna.
The first hike is at 1 p.m. on May 18 at Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park. On June 22, ODNR naturalists and geologists will lead a 1 p.m. hike at Kiser Lake State Park in Champaign County.
In the fall, ODNR will host hikes at Shawnee State Park and Hueston Woods State Park.
