What We Do

Protect Your Land

Captina Conservancy engages primarily in the conservation of natural areas, forest lands, riparian corridors and farmlands within, but not limited to, those sections of Belmont County and Monroe County, Ohio, containing the watersheds of Captina Creek and its tributaries as well as Guernsey, Noble, Harrison, and Jefferson counties.

In addition to education, our work includes offering voluntary conservation agreements (i.e., conservation easements) with private property owners and through donations and fee-simple acquisitions of property from willing owners.

Why Captina Creek Watershed?
Captina Creek is one of the most pristine streams in Ohio. It is a precious resource that we in the watershed have appreciated, but largely taken for granted, for decades.

After completing a biological and water quality study, the Ohio EPA designated Captina Creek an Exceptional Warm Water Habitat; and it is among the highest of any watershed in the state. Captina Creek is also home to the only known breeding population in Ohio of the Eastern Hellbender Salamander, which is listed as an endangered species in Ohio.

Explore Captina Creek Watershed

CARE FOR YOUR LAND

A cloudless blue sky overlooks the rolling green hills of fields and bare trees with farm houses and out buildings scattered about.

Conservation Easement

Landowners can establish legal deed restrictions to protect the agricultural and conservation values existing on their properties for generations to come. Captina Conservancy can oversee and insure that those protections remain in place and are observed, regardless of future ownership.

Deed restrictions are tailored to each property and landowner. Examples of deed restrictions include, but are not limited to, ensuring a property cannot be divided or extensively developed, forest management guidelines, and prohibiting clear-cutting trees

ACQUISITION

The Conservancy can also own properties, protecting them from development and promoting them as long term natural preserves.

STEWARDSHIP

Coming Soon!

A man wearing a ball cap, a long-sleeved black jacket, and blue jeans is holding a remote control unit while he looks upward at a small white drone that is hovering in the cloudless, blue sky. The back half of a black pickup truck is to the left of the man.

MONITORING and Managing CONSERVATION PROPERTIES

Properties under conservation easement are monitored annually by the Captina Conservancy staff and volunteers. In addition to walking the properties for monitoring, drones are used to help monitor hard to reach areas of a property.

Management plans can include such items as tree plantings to establish riparian buffer zones.

Do you have questions about how conservation easements or acquisitions work?
Please contact Ellie Ewing, Executive Director, at [email protected].

spotlight: Raven Rocks

Tall, skinny trees dot the rocky hillsides while a slender shallow creek with small rocks poking through flows down the center at Raven Rocks The air is filled with a morning fog.

Ice cicles dangling from a large rock overhang loom over a pathway where several people wearing winter hiking gear and backpacks are walking at Raven Rocks.

A swift waterfall flows from a forested area into a pool of water nestled amongst large rocky cliffs.

LOCATION:
Southern Belmont County
SIZE:
1,015 acres
ENTERED CONSERVATION EASEMENT:
2014

ABOUT:
Raven Rocks is located in Belmont County's Wayne Township, within Ohio's Appalachian Plateau. The property is a magnificent area with natural, historical and archeological significance. The series of ravines, sandstone cliffs, extensive rock overhangs, and miniature waterfalls is unusual in the eastern Ohio hills. In 2014, Raven Rocks was placed into a conservation easement with the support of the Clean Ohio Green Space Conservation Program, making it the largest natural area conservation easement in Ohio history at that time.

More about Raven Rocks