Medlar Conservation Area

Catherine Queener along Shepards Run at the Medlar Conservation Area

This 409+ acre natural area lies south of Miamisburg and east of the Great Miami River in Miami Township.  It is adjacent to over 200 acres of public open space owned by Miami Township, the City of Miamisburg, and Montgomery County.

This beautiful piece of land contains mature forest, planted prairies, wetlands, young forest, a scenic pond, and two small streams.  These native habitats are accentuated by varied topography from nearly flat to rolling to steep terrain.  A scenic hilltop vista in the western end is a highlight.

Wildlife observed here include deer, wild turkey, and a wide variety of smaller mammals, amphibians, and birds.

Much of the land was purchased with the help of the Clean Ohio Fund, a State bond issue approved by Ohio voters in 2000 and 2008.  In addition to buying the land, these funds paid for improvements to the land including removal of invasive Amur honeysuckle (from Asia), installation of an access lane, and the planting of trees.

Land acquisition started in 1975, when The Park District of Dayton-Montgomery County set out to make a large new reserve in this area that was to be called Crains Run Reserve.  A 73-acre piece was purchased on Medlar Rd. to start the new park.  Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons the Park District decided not to pursue a park here not long after this purchase.

Former farm of Gwen Rice, who donated a conservation easement on this land to MetroParks.  Her son and daughter -in-law sold the remaining interest to MetroParks in 2009.

This little piece of land was sort of an orphan for over 20 years.  Then, in 1994, the Park District decided to pursue Crains Run Reserve again, but on a somewhat smaller scale.  I was a voice for doing this because the region had a variety of outstanding qualities: mature forest, hills and ravines, remnants of the Miami-Erie canal, and opportunity in a growing part of Montgomery County.   In 1995 Mrs. Gwen Rice, owner of a 104-acre farm containing prime development land generously donated a conservation easement to the Park District.  In this same year the Park District of Dayton-Montgomery County changed its name to Five Rivers MetroParks.  Unfortunately, the partnership with other jurisdictions collapsed for a while, and the project was on the shelf again.

Serendipity struck starting in 2008-2010 when the land needed to complete a new land base came up for sale.  Also fortuitously, the Clean Ohio Fund was available, and I put together successful applications to this program with the help of a talented part-time employee named Marilyn Baumer.  Suddenly we had a land base that connected the new Austin Rd. interchange with the Great Miami River.  The new Conservation Area contains 5 areas of mature woods.  One of them, on the northern edge along Shepards Run is outstanding.

Dr. James Runkle of Wright Stat University at Bustillo Woods at Medlar Conservation Area

Seedlings in Tree Shelters

 In 2012 twenty thousand trees were planted into 10 abandoned farm fields in a project called the Shepard’s Run Reforestation Project.  This ambitious project’s goal is to restore this land to a healthy, diverse forest containing a wide variety of native trees and shrubs.  After planting, each tree was protected with a tree shelter.  This is a plastic tube that protects the tree from mice, rabbits, and deer until it is large enough to be on its own (most tree planting projects fail because animals eat them in their first few years).  After the trees are about 2 inches in diameter the shelters are removed.  This new forest (I hope) will link together two of the existing forested tracts and make for a larger forest block.

An interesting aspect of Medlar is the remnants of the Miami-Erie Canal.  The park contains a stone aquaduct (where the canal passed over Shepards Run, and a stretch of the original canal still intact.

MetroParks IT Manager, Tim Clark at the Shepards Run Aquaduct

Future plans for the Medlar Conservation Area are to maintain this large piece of natural land in this increasingly developed part of Montgomery County.  However, some improvements to allow public access are contemplated over time.  The main improvement is a paved path that would run from Miamisburg-Springboro Road to the existing bikeway on the Great Miami River.