Onwards and upwards: the future of the Buckeye Trail and Ohio landowners

How private easements and conservation partnerships are shaping the long-term preservation of Ohio’s 1,400-mile Buckeye Trail

At over 1400 miles, the Buckeye Trail is the longest continuous loop trail in the United States, and possibly the world. The landscape and terrain of the trail as it weaves through public and private lands are as diverse as its users. The Buckeye Trail is close to 40% off-road, meaning that over half still lies along country back roads and city streets.

The future of the Buckeye Trail is bright, as each year, more miles are relocated into public parks, forests, and land that is held by conservation groups. Ohio ranks 47th of 50 states in public land acreage per capita. The BT makes the best use of the public lands Ohio does have, but most of what remains between existing off-road portions of the BT is held by private owners.

An easement for the Buckeye Trail

Carl and Gail Boesel recently provided the Buckeye Trail with a two-mile easement on their property (Points 2-3, Old Man’s Cave Section), with a 100 acre conservation easement surrounding the trail given to our partners at the Appalachian Ohio Alliance. The Boesels live on their property in northern Hocking County between the Wayne National Forest and the Hocking Hills. These easements not only insure that the trail will have a permanent home, but that the Boesel’s land will be protected for future generations of Ohioans to enjoy.

I spoke with Carl to ask him about his decision to provide this easement to the trail, in hopes that other landowners may look to their story as inspiration to do the same. For as long as Carl can remember, the Buckeye Trail has run through his property. When looking to purchase the property, he noticed blue blazes along many of the trees, and when he asked the realtor what these were, the man stated that the Buckeye Trail ran through the property.

Carl, having only heard of the trail through stories an old friend told him, thought this was a “neat” quality that the property possessed. Though the trail had been a staple on the Boesel’s property, it was only recently that Carl decided that he wanted to insure the protection of their property and decided to provide the easements. He stated that

“I wanted to see the trail preserved and [to] provide a place for hikers to experience nature and see the hills and wild areas. This also will protect the land from logging.”

When I asked Carl about any apprehension that he had about having the trail on his property, he said, “At first I was worried about liability, but I learned that Ohio law actually protects the landowner. I hear many people tell me that they don’t like the idea of having people on their land, making noise and littering. I can tell you that I have never had any litter on my property from hikers; they are usually the ones [who] are picking the litter up.”

A message to landowners

Carl’s message to other landowners is “It is really satisfying to preserve, build, and maintain the trail on his property.” He enjoys “continuously making the trail nice and though [he] rarely sees them, does enjoy seeing the thru-hikers when they come through.”

Andrew Bashaw, Director of the BTA, gave an illustration of the essential role of private landowners in preserving a corridor for the BT. If you were to take Carl and Gail Boesel’s property as an example, two miles of the BT was preserved within 100 acres, so that is 50 acres per mile of the BT. Since the nature of the BT varies across the state, the value of an acre of land also varies greatly. As a rough estimate, let’s take 50 acres per mile multiplied by half of the remaining BT (let’s say 700 miles) multiplied by $2,000 per acre. These rough estimates add up to… 35,000 acres for $70 million IF the land were to be purchased Fee Simple. The BTA is making great strides for a small non-profit organization in figuring out our trail preservation strategy.

In the past 3 years we have been able to preserve 230 acres! At this rate, it would take the BTA by itself… 457 years to see the vision through! While this is all theoretical, it points out the huge importance of each and every landowner’s decision along the Buckeye Trail corridor.

A more reasonable answer is for the BTA to encourage 350 private landowners to follow the Boesels lead. The real progress on a preserved corridor for the BT includes all the work of our partners around Ohio, not just the BTA’s efforts. We hope to better highlight the great work of our partners over the coming year. Ultimately, the BTA will need to combine all strategies possible to increase the preserved trail corridor:

• Our private landowner negotiations for donations of land or easement, such as those from Franchot and Henrietta Ballinger and Carl and Gail Boesel.
• Our support of conservation partners such as the Appalachian Ohio Alliance, The Nature Conservancy in the Sunshine Ridge Corridor, the Western Reserve Land Conservancy and Friends of Camp Crowell Hilaka.