Mount Airy Forest — Public Lands Institute

Geological age: ~450 million years ago (Ordovician bedrock); surface soils entirely reworked by 19th-century agricultural erosion and 20th-century reforestation
Epoch: Ordovician period (Cincinnatian); overlain by Wisconsin glacial till; original forest cleared by 1900 through farming and grazing; reforestation begun 1911 — one of the first municipal reforestation projects in the United States
Taxa: 693 plants, 1,506 insects, 19 mammals, 18 reptiles, 104 arachnids
Native lands: Shawnee (Shawanwaki) · Fort Ancient culture (900–1650 CE); upland forest ridge a known hunting and travel corridor; Shawnee ceded Hamilton County lands via Treaty of Greene Ville 1795
Ecology: Reforested mixed hardwood and evergreen; 700 acres hardwoods, 200 acres evergreens, 269 acres native woodland; 120-acre arboretum with 1,600+ species; CCC plantings 1935–42; National Register of Historic Places 2010
Hydrology: West Fork Mill Creek headwaters; steep ravine drainage; historically severe sheet erosion prior to reforestation; upland watershed now stabilized by forest canopy
Acreage: 1,459 acres
Conservation: Municipal forest (City of Cincinnati); National Register of Historic Places
Endangered species: none documented
GPS: 39.1680° N, 84.5870° W