Help NCOLC combat two epidemics – invasive plants and addiction. Donations to our Healing Land and People campaign will be used to pay people in recovery to remove non-native invasive plants from our nature preserves surrounding the Clear Fork Valley Scenic Trail.
Your donation to Healing Land and People provides people recovering from addiction an opportunity to earn an income, gain work experience and learn about land conservation. Your donation also helps our nature preserves, because their work removing invasive species promotes the regeneration of native plants.
Paul wants to inspire others who are struggling with addiction.
Paul
"I love the woods, being able to restore the woods to what the natural flora should be. It gives me time to get out here and think when I’m working. I also have been diagnosed with mental illness, so it’s definitely been a help to me being out here. Stress free is a real good label for it.
If I want to scream out here, I can, if I’m having one of those days. There’s no judgment out here, the trees don’t talk to you. Sometimes you see some wildlife, like chipmunks, squirrels and rabbits. It’s pleasant out here, with the birds chirping and the sunshine peaking through. It frees you up."
Jessie
“When I was on drugs, I felt like I was in a prison, I felt like I was chained up and I couldn’t do anything. I come out here [to work in the woods] and I’m actually clean, I actually feel good and I have my own energy now. I can come out here and enjoy what this actually is about…This is the best thing that I have found for my recovery.”
Jess wanted to share her story of addiction, recovery, and how a connection to the land inspires her to stay drug free.
NCOLC Trustee Eric Miller tells the story of how Healing Land and People got started and what this unique approach means to our nature preserves and our workers in recovery.
Why NCOLC Founder Eric Miller Began This Program
“2 years ago, we decided to try hiring recovering addicts to remove invasive species on our land. We decided to opt for this approach because surely, they need money and will benefit from working in a quiet woods, doing something positive.
I didn’t realize that our land trust would derive so many benefits from it. I didn’t realize so many of these people would work out as well as they did. The ones who buy into the program are excellent workers and they say it’s doing them a lot of good.
The money we raise through this Healing Land and People campaign is going right back to paying them, and they need money to pay their bills. They need a chance to prove that they can work and hold a job.”
If you’ve walked along the Clear Fork Valley Scenic Trail, then you have experienced the results of their work. Garlic mustard, multi-flora rose and other invasive plants are removed so we all can enjoy the beauty and environmental benefits of our native Ohio plants – orchids, lilies, violets, to name just a few.
“Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”