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An important asset and resource for the Oxford community, the 3,000-acre Hueston Woods State Park remains barely visible to many Miami University students four years less than five miles from its natural beauty.
Oxford Assistant City Manager Jessica Greene said she believes long-term residents know more about the park and what it has to offer than students in Miami.
“Sometimes there’s a bit of a break when we’re so close to Oxford,†agreed Shawn Conner, naturalist at Hueston Woods. “I think some students may not always get that close to the opportunities they have here.”
According to Conner, representatives from Hueston Woods are trying to come to Miami’s Mega Fair earlier in the school year to tell students what the park has to offer. Greene has said in the past that the park and university have worked together to create coordinated social media posts on accounts that students follow.
Acton Lake extends for 625 acres in the heart of the park and is used for a variety of water sports as well as local fish and wildlife. One Miami group that knows the park well is the Miami Rowing Club, which trains there every weekday and stores their gear in a building on the park grounds.
Miami’s rowing team is one of the few student-run teams in the country, according to the club’s president, Alec Greenberg, a junior with an economics degree. He joined the club and a few days after arriving in Miami went to Hueston Woods for his freshman.
“So, literally since I was in college, I’ve been in Hueston Woods, which is fun,” said Greenberg. “Since then, I have felt like a manager of the park.”
Having a good relationship with the park rangers and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) is very important to the rowing team, according to the women’s rowing captain Janie Petraglia and Greenberg. The rangers protect them and help them when they need it. If there was ever an incident on the water while training, the rangers would help them, they said.
“The park takes care of us, we take care of the park,” said Greenberg. “I hope it’s a good relationship.”
Miami also uses Hueston Woods for research purposes. Biology professor David Gorchov said he and his students are doing research on invasive plant species and deer in the park. The state park has a nature reserve that is part of the Ohio State Preserve System, according to Gorchov. The reserve contains an area of ​​beech maple forest that once covered a strip of Ohio from the southwest to the northeast corner of the state, so the park’s visitor office.
Gorchov said he doesn’t take regular classes in the park, but undergraduate, graduate and graduate students from other schools have all participated in the exploration of the property in the past.
According to the visitor’s office, Hueston Woods has more than 40 miles of hiking and biking trails, a golf course and a lodge for overnight guests. Greene said that city and university trails and the opportunities the state park offers complement each other in a way that is a great resource for the area.
With many students unaware of what the park has to offer, Rowing Vice President Tristan Sprenger said more people should be made aware of it. According to Ivan Wehner, the captain of the men’s rowing team, starting volunteer programs like garbage collection in the park could attract more students. Petraglia said holding a social event for new students in Hueston Woods could also help.
“Every student in Miami should go,” said Gorchov.
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