Augusta-Anne+Olsen+State+Nature+Preserve

Also, see Huron County Birding Drive
 * =Birding in Ohio=

Huron County
=Augusta-Anne Olsen State Nature Preserve= West River Road Wakeman, Ohio 44889 Augusta-Anne Olsen State Nature Preserve webpage

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Augusta-Anne Olsen State Nature Preserve
Coordinates: 41.2727105, -82.4080181 eBird links: Hotspot map View details Recent visits My eBird links: Location life list Submit data

About Augusta-Anne Olsen State Nature Preserve

 * Beautiful views of the Vermilion River Gorge
 * Excellent spring wildflowers

Located in Huron County, the Augusta-Anne Olsen State Nature Preserve is just a short drive from Wakeman. Formerly named the Vermilion River Preserve, it now bears the name of Augusta-Anne Olsen, who, with her husband, was instrumental in protecting the significance of this scenic natural area.

Olsen donated 83 acres to the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves to ensure that her Ohio farm would not experience the same fate as her childhood home. Later in 1996, the division purchased an additional 47 acres of the farm.

Today, Olsen State Nature Preserve features ridge top oaks and maples towering above a mixed floodplain forest and the Vermilion River.

The half-mile Spring Trail offers great diversity and a wide variety of spring wildflowers in April and May including twinleaf, bluebells, sessile trillium, large-flowered trillium, drooping trillium, ginger, bloodroot, marsh marigold, hepatica, wild hyacinth, golden saxifrage, dwarf ginseng and showy orchis.

Both the River Loop Trail and the River Trail offer excellent wildflower viewing, as well as American chestnut trees. The Sassafras Trail features one of the largest sassafras trees in the state, as well as spectacular views high above the river on a ridge of serviceberry and witch-hazel.

The Vermilion River, which runs in a huge bend around the preserve, has created many small plant communities with different exposures offering a great deal of diversity in a relatively small area.

Birding along the river is outstanding in the springtime. Bald eagles, pileated woodpeckers, scarlet tanagers and many species of wood warblers can be spotted in the preserve. The floodplain also offers many vernal, or seasonal, pools of water teeming with breeding amphibians, such as dusky, redback and smallmouth salamanders. From Augusta-Anne Olsen State Nature Preserve webpage



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media type="custom" key="26451656" || L518010 US US-OH US-OH-077 41.2727105 -82.4080181 Augusta-Anne Olsen State Nature Preserve