LOVELAND, Ohio — The city’s Tree & Environment Committee is teaming up with the Ohio River Foundation for a volunteer workday at East Loveland Nature Preserve on Nov. 7, with organizers seeking residents to help remove invasive plants and restore habitat along O’Bannon Creek.
The event runs from 9:30 a.m. to noon, according to a flyer posted by the city. Registration is required and spots are limited; residents can sign up through a QR code included in the city’s announcement.
Organizers said the work will focus on removing invasive species and restoring native habitat at the preserve, a park just outside Historic Downtown Loveland along East Loveland Avenue. The preserve, which the city owns, includes about a mile of trails, a footbridge over O’Bannon Creek, interpretive signage and a bird blind, and has relied in part on volunteers and Eagle Scout projects over the years to keep its trails maintained.
The Ohio River Foundation, a Cincinnati-based environmental nonprofit that has worked for more than two decades to protect the water quality and ecology of the Ohio River watershed, regularly organizes hands-on restoration days at area parks, pairing volunteers with habitat projects that target invasive plants and encourage native tree growth.
Loveland’s Tree & Environment Committee advises city council on environmental policy and practices and meets monthly. The committee has helped the city earn Tree City USA recognition from the Arbor Day Foundation in recent years and has run other environmental initiatives, including a program offering residents credit toward a native tree purchase when they remove an invasive Callery pear tree from their property.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the City of Loveland.