When: Friday, April 3, 2009 8 am to 4 pm
Where: Villa Milano (
villamilano.com), 1630 Schrock Road Columbus, Ohio, 43229
Registration: $25 (includes continental breakfast, lunch buffet (
menu), refreshments, 6 presentations, a media show, materials, exhibits, vendors and parking). Additional $10 after March 31. Registration will begin in early January.
Symposium Organizers & Sponsors: Ohio Division of Natural Areas & Preserves, The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, The Nature Conservancy, & The Ohio State University Herbarium.
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Award winning and world renowned botanist and conservationist, Dr. W. Hardy Eshbaugh will present the keynote address “The Challenges to Biodiversity Conservation in the 21st Century: Where does Ohio fit in the Equation?” Dr. Eshbaugh is Professor Emeritus of Botany, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio and Research Associate, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis. He has received numerous awards including the Peter H. Raven award from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, the Great Egret Award from the National Audubon Society, the Outstanding Communicator Award from the Ohio Ornithological Society,and the Osborn Award from the Ohio Biological Survey.
Dr. Eshbaugh has extensive international experience having taught and led field natural history courses and trips in the Bahamas, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, Amazonian Peru, Costa Rica, and Uganda. He has traveled and consulted on trips to Greenland and the high Canadian Arctic, and the Antarctic. His research on the origin and evolution of chili peppers has taken him throughout Latin America, the Amazon, and Andean South America.
He has been to East Africa and South Africa conducting research and as a participant in several international meetings on the botany of sub-Sahara Africa. More recently, Dr. Eshbaugh has devoted his energies to various conservation issues and in particular on ecotourism as a tool for effective conservation especially in the developing world.
Other Presentations:
Restoration and Pollinators: Patterns of Diversity and Abundance of Pollinator Communities
Dr. Karen Goodell, The Ohio State University
Fern Allies of Ohio
Dr. R. James Hickey, Miami University
A Media Show: Nature’s Beauty in Southern Ohio 2009
John Howard
Woodland Fungi: The Destructive, the Deadly, & the Delicious
Dr. Lanny Rhodes, The Ohio State University
Best Plant Finds of 2008
Greg Schneider, Ohio Division of Natural Areas & Preserves
Conservation & Restoration Efforts of the Metro Parks
John Watts, Columbus & Franklin County Metro Parks
Ohio Botanical Symposium
The Ohio Botanical Symposium was started in 2001 by the Ohio Division of Natural Areas and Preserves to bring botanists, naturalists, and nature enthusiasts together to network, listen to talks, and view posters and displays on Ohio’s native flora, natural areas, and rare plants. The Nature Conservancy joined as a co-sponsor of the symposium in 2003 and the Ohio State University Herbarium joined as a co-sponsor in 2006.
Over the years, attendance has steadily grown and the symposium has been moved several times to accommodate the growing audience.
In addition to at least 6 presentations, people have a chance to visit with exhibitors and vendors. Exhibitors have included non-profit environmental and conservation groups, park districts, federal and state agencies, and universities. 
Vendors have included book sellers, nature crafts, and nature education/lodging. The symposium has brought in some of the top experts in the field of botany and conservation including Jim Amon Ph. D., Jim Bissell Ph. D, Fred Case, Allison Cusick, Michael Homoya, Anton Reznicek, Ph. D., and Ed Voss, Ph. D.
In March of 2008, the symposium was held for the second straight year at the Fawcett Center on The Ohio State University campus. For the second year in a row a near capacity crowd came to hear experts from Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio on a variety of topics relating to Ohio’s flora and natural communities.
We thank those of you for joining us at this year’s symposium. We hope to see you again next year.