Indian Hills includes more than 3,500 acres of preserved land. While the Indian Hills Village Public Works Department does a fantastic job managing most of it, the community has also stepped up to help out in a big way.
That’s where the Trees & Trails Foundation, a public-private partnership to bridge the funding gap for conservation efforts of green areas, comes in.
Eppa Rixey founded the Trees & Trails Foundation in 2022 with fellow longtime resident Pam Middendorff. Its goal is to support the efforts of the Village of Indian Hill in the maintenance and renovation of village-owned green areas.
“Invasive insects and plants are killing native trees and shrubs,” Rixey explains. “If we’re to continue to enjoy the beautiful midwestern deciduous forests that have thrived in this area for thousands of years, then we need to take an active role in removing those invasive species, and planting and encouraging ongoing education about native trees and shrubs.”
The foundation finds itself closely aligned with a significant bit of Indian Hill history, Middendorff explains.
“The idea of ‘preserved land’ germinated in the early 1920s,” she says, “when Indian Hill found itself a home to many wealthy Cincinnatians. These residents enjoyed the countryside, outdoor recreation, and, in particular, foxhunting.”
Foxhunting requires a large, open territory. To accommodate it, these new landowners privately built a remarkable 150 miles of bridle trails. It wasn’t long until some of those families also began donating land to the village, in order to protect the community from overdevelopment.
“Hundreds of generous Indian Hill families have followed suit,” she says, “ensuring that the open, natural feel everyone in the village enjoys will remain.”
For many years, Indian Hill’s plan for the green areas was simple.
“The vision was to let the forests and streams thrive on their own and let nature take its course,” Rixey says. “Over the last decade, however, it became obvious that human and environmental impact was interrupting nature’s ability to regenerate the beautiful forests that our forefathers knew.”
Today, the Trees & Trails Foundation works with both volunteers and a respectable collection of like-minded organizations. Collectively the group shares a common perspective in the fight to overcome invasive species, reintroduce native plants and renovate the region’s aging bridle trails. Those partner organizations include Turner Farm, Indian Hill Equestrian Club, Camargo Hunt, Indian Hill Historical Society, Indian Hill Garden Club, Rowe Arboretum, Green Areas Advisory Committee and the Indian Hill Public Works Department.
In keeping with its aim of outreach to village residents, the Trees & Trails Foundation has several upcoming opportunities for community involvement.
One such event will be a three-part seminar, produced with support from the Greenacres Foundation. Participants in the program, Middendorff explains, will learn how to identify, remove and replace invasive species with native alternatives. The sessions will include both a lecture and complementary outdoor walks, to be held on April 23, July 30 and September 17.
The Trees & Trails Foundation also encourages those who enjoy working outdoors to join their neighbors for monthly trail clearing events, usually held on the third Saturday of the month from April through October.
It’s at these events that the community can truly celebrate not only its potential for the future, but it can also connect with its past.
“By working together,” Middendorff says, “our goal is to raise awareness within the community and distribute the work to many hands.”
For more information and registration for these events, please visit Trees-Trails.org.
“It became obvious that human and environmental impact was interrupting nature’s ability to regenerate the beautiful forests that our forefathers knew.”