Edge of Appalachia Preserve--Portman Trail and Rieveschl Overlook

About this Location

The Dr. George Rieveschl Jr. Creek’s Bend Overlook is the first stop in exploring the 20,000-acre Edge of Appalachia Preserve—Ohio’s largest privately owned protected natural area. With its forests and prairies, streams and waterfalls, the preserve is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the Midwest. More than 100 rare plant and animal species call this preserve home.

Visitors can enjoy a large open pavilion with picnic tables, a stone overlook of Ohio Brush Creek, a canoe/kayak access to Ohio Brush Creek, as well as two trails: the brief Prairie Garden Trail and the 1.6-mile, round-trip, Joan Jones Portman Trail, which leads through prairie openings to a small rock promontory for a view of the adjacent forested valley.

Visitors are invited to take time to enjoy the Ohio Brush Creek overlook, and to peruse the interpretive signage, and information kiosk, which describe the preserve’s natural history and offers travelers information about other points of interest within the preserve to visit.

About Edge of Appalachia Preserve

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This 20,000-acre preserve system is referred to as “The Edge.” Each separate preserve and trail offers unique qualities. Visitors will enjoy gorgeous views, distinctive geology, and peaceful trails. It is also a great place for birding, especially in spring and fall. Activities include hiking, birding, fishing, kayaking/canoeing, wildlife-watching, nature photography, and observing native plants.

Ancient forests of massive oaks and American chestnut once blanketed nearly all of what would become southern and eastern Ohio. When the first white settlers arrived in the Ohio Valley, wolves and elk wandered this rustic landscape of pristine rivers and fertile forests.

Yet by the early 1900s, about 90 percent of the original forest cover had been cleared to make room for farmland and to feed the iron furnaces of southern Ohio – severely degrading part of North America’s oldest and most biologically diverse forest systems.

Today, Ohio’s Appalachian forests are returning, with nearly 40 percent of the region cloaked in mixed hardwood forest. The Nature Conservancy’s 20,000-acre Edge of Appalachia Preserve is a key component of this recovery process, mending habitats on a large scale and preserving the landscape’s unique natural legacy.

Content from Portman Trail and Rieveschl Overlook website, Edge of Appalachia Preserve Official Website, and Ohio Ornithological Society