Volunteers help plant 850 trees at Quarry Farm

PANDORA – It was a busy afternoon for members of the Women's Outreach group from Emmanuel United Church of Christ in Bluffton. They had a job to do. The volunteers put on hats and gloves, squirted bug spray and picked up their shovels. Those black cherry seedlings weren't going to plant themselves. They were just one of the groups and individuals that helped plant 850 trees at the Quarry Farm Nature Preserve and Conservation Farm near Pandora last month, according to Anne Coburn-Griffis. She and her husband, Steve Coburn-Griffis, are facilitators of the farm. The 50-acre natural area and conservation farm is located on Road 7L near Pandora. Several habitats have flourished there and are home to native mammals, reptiles, amphibians and plants as well as native and migratory birds and insects. The family operates it as a nature preserve and center for conservation education. That day, the handful of women had been asked to plant 100 seedlings near the grassland prairie. "Well, we're always looking for something different, and it's mission work," one of the members explained. And the Quarry Farm is a great organization, added Deb Weston, who is a member of the farm's board of directors. She also leads the bird trips there. To date, 155 species have been seen on the property. "In the spring, I'm here almost every day because migration only lasts for a few weeks. I want to document as many species here as I can," she said. The farm's many different habitat areas help with that, noted Weston. "There's the quarry and then there's the woods and then there's the prairie," she said. "And when it rains a lot, there's also wetlands, you know, like boggy places." Volunteers have been working the past six years to remove invasive plant species like amur bush honeysuckle that crowd out the native trees and wildflowers. Once removed, the branches are piled high to make the perfect environment for birds, raccoons, possums and fox. "Every furry thing that makes the land good," said Weston. Coburn-Griffis said they want to keep the area as a prairie, but there are a lot of invasives there. "Russian olive, for instance, used to be everywhere," she said. "But we got goats, and they took a lot of it out." Piles of dead amur bush honeysuckle can also be spotted in the woods. "We left those there for piles, and we also make hiking sticks out of them. Kids like to do that," she said. The farm has been in the Seitz family for three generations. Anne's grandparents, Carl and Joyce Seitz, bought the 50 acres that encompassed an old stone quarry in the 1940s. In the early 1970s, Gerald and Laura (Seitz) Coburn, Coburn-Griffis' parents, bought the property. The family set a 10-year goal for removing the invasive plants. Much of the work has been completed in six years, thanks to cousin David Seitz. A retired engineer from Dublin, Ohio, Coburn-Griffis said he also designed and engineered the floating footbridge. "He has cleared so much of these invasives that it is time to plant trees that will benefit native wildlife," she said. Using funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Conservation Stewardship Program, Coburn-Griffis was able to purchase a variety of native trees and bushes to plant including species of oak, hickory, serviceberry, buckeye, plum, persimmon, viburnum, black walnut, shellbark hickory, black cherry and Ohio buckeye. Dan Bartlett, a service forester who works with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Forestry, and Kevin Edinger from the USDA helped with the process. "They came out and walked the property last summer," she said. "Initially we were looking for funding to restore this (the grassland area)." Then Bartlett saw that so many invasives had been removed from the forest, he suggested she purchase trees instead. "We got that grant and the first year we're planting about 850 trees," she said. "Our volunteers have cleared so much of the invasives in the woods that we're trying to fill in before they start coming back." Trees were ordered from Putnam County Soil and Water, Franklin County Soil and Water, the Division of Forestry in Kentucky and also from places in Illinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and the Arbor Day Foundation. "They're all trees that we've already had here before, and we know they'll grow here," she said. "Some of the trees that we have most of here are black walnut, and we planted more. Kentucky coffee trees, we planted more of those. We do have black cherry, but a lot of those got crowded out so that's why we're putting these in. And they need the sun so we thought the border would be really good for them." Corburn-Griffis knows all of the trees won't make it to maturity. "Some of them will be eaten, I'm sure. The whole idea is some of them won't," she said. But the northern red oak and hickory trees that were planted about a month ago are already leafing out, said Coburn-Griffis. "So these trees, I think they're just a blessing, and they're doing well," she said. The Quarry Farm, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, also received the 2026 Organization Award from the Environmental Education Council of Ohio. The award recognizes more than two decades of commitment by the farm for its environmental education, conservation and community engagement. Local organizations, schools and conservation groups regularly rely on the farm as a hub for immersive outdoor programming. Educational initiatives hosted at the site include multi-county teacher workshops, wetland exploration days for seventh-grade students, forestry and birding field days, pollinator habitat education through Women for the Land programs, Envirothon training sessions for high school students, junior naturalist programs and history-focused experiences for fourth-graders. The property is recognized as an official eBird hot spot through the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology. Ongoing data collection also includes butterflies, damselflies and dragonflies, all of which are shared publicly to support broader conservation efforts. Online: https://thequarryfarm.org/