Athens County Open Space

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McLaren Pond, Canaan Township, Athens County, Ohio	Athens Conservancy Athens County Open Space
	Athens County, Ohio is located in the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau of southeastern Ohio. Ridges tend to have even tops, rising up to about one thousand feet above sea level, but they are cut by dendritic drainage valleys, with very steep sides. Ridges usually have benches on their sides, where the slope is less steep, because of the difference in hardness and weathering resistance of rock layers. This is largely covered by heavy deciduous hardwood forest. Within this context are hundreds of old coal mine sites (and a few iron ore mine sites). Streams are often polluted with acid mine drainage. The Hocking River drains most of Athens County, and two tributaries of it are especially known for their mine pollution problems: Sunday Creek and Monday Creek. There are active programs to clean up as much of this as possible, and the large areas of public land in the former coal-mining areas are helping in this effort. Athens County has a great amount of public land, as do many surrounding counties. Below is a linked list of many of the open-space areas:

Athens County United States of America Wayne National Forest (B): 18,800.7 acres total (as of 2002) US Army Corps of Engineers Belleville Locks & Dam (W): Coolville Public Access Site: 44.3 acres Tom Jenkins Dam (K): at Burr Oak Lake: 99.3 acres State of Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources: State Parks Burr Oak State Park (L): 2592 acres total; 240.1 acres in Athens County; 664-acre lake Strouds Run State Park (S): 2606.3 acres; 161-acre lake Nature Preserves Desonier State Nature Preserve (V): 490.9 acres Acadia Cliffs State Nature Preserve (U): 4.4 acres (plus 273 in Washington County) Wildlife Areas Fox Lake Wildlife Area (G): 421.8 acres Trimble Wildlife Area (I): 2097.9 acres Waterloo Wildlife Research Station (D): 2466 acres Sunday Creek Wildlife Area (J): 2400 acres; owned by Sunday Creek Coal Company, permit required State Forests Gifford State Forest (T): 319.9 acres Waterloo State Forest (F): 529.3 acres (also included in Zaleski total, below) Zaleski State Forest (C): 26,827 acres total; 2,974.9 in Athens County (includes Waterloo State Forest acreage)
Other Areas Athens County Ferndale Park (X): 62.0 acres Hockhocking Adena Bikeway (N): 91 acres (12.5 miles, 60 feet wide) Moonville Rail-Trail (E): (administered by Moonville Rail-Trail, Inc.; portion in Vinton County owned by Vinton County) Athens City Dale and Jackie Riddle State Nature Preserve (Q): 106 acres Sells Park (Q): 22 acres Strouds Ridge Preserve (Q): 197 acres Village of Chauncey Chauncey Village Park (K): 112.2 acres Hocking College Hocking College campus and other lands (A): 1388.2 acres Lake Snowden (H): 654.1 acres Ohio University The Ridges (P): 790 acres approx Athens Conservancy Blair Preserve (R): 75 acres Bluebell Preserve (O): 64 acres Appalachia Ohio Alliance: Sunday Creek Preserve (M): 1200 acres Hocking River Commission: Glimscher Woods (Y): 13 acres

This page was last revised on October 26, 2007.
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