Glen Helen | News & Events | Nature Preserve

NEWS

Even for the resident box turtle, Mr. Turkleton, Glen Helen’s Trailside Museum is a hands-on space for environmental education. The museum’s Deputy Director Kat Christen (shown here holding the animal ambassador — one of many at the museum) along with a number of Glen staffers and volunteers reopened the museum earlier this year, after its temporary closing in 2020. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)

A Good Summer for Glen Helen's Reopened Trailside Museum

By Reilly Dixon

Published: August 13, 2024

Did you know that 75% of the human brain is water, and 75% of a living tree is also water? What about bats being the only mammal that can fly? That temperature determines the sex of a turtle before it hatches?

And how many species of native fish live in our wild Ohio waterways? The answer: over 170.

Within its stone walls — where the lines between indoor and outdoor are blurred — Glen Helen Nature Preserve’s Trailside Museum asks its guests to ponder these questions and more.

to read the full press release, click here.

On Sunday, Nov. 19, local multimedia artists Kathi Seidl, left, and Beth Holyoke will unveil their newest collaborative installation in Glen Helen’s Vernet Ecological Center: “Fungi Fantasy/Looking,” a fiber-based, floor-to-ceiling cropping of mushrooms and more. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)

Fiber artists to unveil newest installation in Glen Helen

By Reilly Dixon

Published: November 18, 2023

There’s a new fungus among us — at least in the Glen Helen Nature Preserve.

On Sunday, Nov. 19, local multimedia artists Kathi Seidl and Beth Holyoke will unveil their newest installation: a kaleidoscopic fairy ring of felted and crocheted mushrooms clustered up and around the central pillar in the atrium of the Vernet Ecological Center.

Sunday’s artist reception will take place 3:30–5 p.m. and will give attendees the opportunity to meet and greet the artists as well as their fiber-based fungi.

to read the full press release, click here.

On an early summer day, Glen Helen Executive Director and lifelong ecologist Nick Boutis stood by the large beaver dam that crosses the Yellow Spring Creek. As Boutis told the News, the Glen Helen beavers — the first in nearly 200 years — have a lot to teach us about the ways in which we commune with nature and one another. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)

Building Community | An ecology for all in Glen Helen

By Reilly Dixon

Published: September 5, 2023

When a family of beavers moved into Glen Helen Nature Preserve in 2021, they immediately set to work damming up the Yellow Springs Creek.

Now, the busy fellers’ wooden marvel — a long assemblage of not just flotsam and jetsam, but also the remains of trees that once towered nearby — spans several dozen feet near a frequently trafficked boardwalk. Though the critters themselves have been quite elusive, visitors of the Glen have been treated to an up-close-and-personal view of the beavers’ handiwork.

to read the full press release, click here.

An aerial view of the former Antioch College power plant, taken last spring. The structure, which is considered an ecological hazard, is slated for demolition this year. (Photo by Bryan Cady)

Nearly $1M in improvements slated for Glen Helen

February 11, 2022

The old Antioch College power plant, which is considered a public and ecological hazard that releases dangerous materials into the Glen, will soon be demolished and the land rehabbed into wetlands, thanks in part to a $988,119 grant from the Clean Ohio Conservation Fund.

The grant was awarded to the Glen Helen Association, which took ownership in 2020. The Village of Yellow Springs has also committed $125,000 in matching funds to the demolition project. The estimated cost of the demolition, cleanup and site restoration is $500,000.

to read the full press release, click here.

Glen Helen Association takes the keys to the trees, moves to reopen Glen Helen trails

September 4th, 2020

– As of today, the Glen Helen Association is the proud owner, steward, and operator of the region’s largest and most visited private nature preserve, Glen Helen. Today’s announcement is the culmination of a lengthy process between Antioch College, which had owned the preserve since 1929, and the Glen Helen Association, an
independent nonprofit that has supported the Glen since 1960.

to read the full press release, click here.

Camp Greene Aquisition

January 12, 2015

The Glen Helen Association announced that it had acquired Camp Greene, a 30.5-acre former Girl Scout camp on the Little Miami River adjacent to Glen Helen nature preserve. Its educational facilities include a dormitory and lodge, which the Glen Helen Association plans to make available for programs.

As part of the acquisition, the Association has signed a deed of restrictions with the Clean Ohio Conservation Fund. This agreement ensures that the property will forever be preserved as a natural area, and that it can continue to be used for environmental learning.

License Plate Revival

January 1, 2015

We are pleased to announce Glen Helen’s popular license plate has been reinstated! Sporting a new red banner, the license plate’s illustration is of a yellow-bellied sap sucker by “one of Ohio’s celebrated wildlife artists, Charley Harper.”

Of all revenue collected, 60% will return to the Glen to support maintenance of more than 20 miles of trails, native plant restoration, ecological education scholarships, raptor rehabilitation programs, and more on the 1,000 acre nature preserve.

License Plates can be purchased for $25, $15 returns to the Glen; www.oplates.com.

Glen Helen Permanently Protected

Easement to protect Glen for good, by Matt Minde

Yellow Springs News, February 28, 2013

As long as most anyone alive remembers, Glen Helen has been protected as a nature preserve. Hugh Taylor Birch insisted on it in 1927 when he deeded the land to Antioch College in his daughter’s memory. But when David Neuhardt set his attorney’s eyes on the dated document, he saw holes and risk all over it. And he recommended that if community members expected to keep their beloved preserve beyond the current generation, they needed a more binding covenant to safeguard it.

When Krista Magaw heard those words, she couldn’t stop thinking how horrible it would be to one day lose the Glen.

Read the entire article here.

Upcoming Events

Please check under the Events tab for our current program calendar.

Unless otherwise noted, all Glen Helen hikes, programs, and events are appropriate for all ages. Please visit our Program Calendar for program/event fees and information.

Parking $10. Glen Helen Members always park free.

Schools, daycare centers, passenger vans, and other groups, park by appointment only.