COLUMBUS, Ohio — State park sustainability is crucial for our environment's overall health and well-being.

What You Need To Know

  • The Ohio State Parks Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports Ohio's state parks by funding special projects to promote sustainability and enhance visitor experience

  • The Ohio Department of Natural Resources' "ConServe Ohio" initiative is a call to action plan that includes implementing sustainability practices 

  • Some sustainability practices you can do next time you visit a park is to pick up your trash, don't bother the wildlife and to not leave anything you bring to the park at the park

“Ohio has such beautiful places, but they're not going to last unless we all join together and become stewards of those places and take care of them,” said the Executive Director of the Ohio State Parks Foundation, Lisa Daris.

Daris has been the executive director of the Ohio State Parks Foundation for three years. She’s had a passion for nature her whole life. 

“I grew up in northeast Ohio on the banks of the Cuyahoga River, and so the waterways were a big part of my life. And with waterways, cleaning them up, connect to nature is just the next step,” said Daris.

The foundation works on special projects for Ohio’s state parks to enhance visitor experience and promote sustainability. One of the projects is the pollinator plot at the Alum Creek State Park Howard Road boat ramp. According to Daris, pollinator plots add to sustainability by contributing to park’s plant life. 

“It promotes pollinators. So those are the little bees and bugs and insects that pollinate and distribute the plants around the state parks and just in general in nature,” said Daris. 

Sustainability is also top of mind for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Its initiative called "ConServe Ohio" is a call to action plan for state park staff and visitors to implement sustainability practices in the parks. 

“It's all about using the natural resources that we have today in a way that makes sure that we have plenty of natural resources for people to use in the future as well,” said the Sustainability Coordinator for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Heather Bokman.  

Bokman said some of the best sustainability practices are to always pick up your trash, don’t leave anything you bring to a state park behind, leave the wildlife alone and if you really want to help, you can become a volunteer. Bokman said sustainability is all about preserving for the future. 

“We want to make sure that we can help keep our environment beautiful, especially in parks where people really are connected to nature. And we want to make sure that people always have that space to go where they can connect with nature and enjoy the beauty of nature and make sure they always have what they need,” said Bokman.