Marianist Environmental Education Center

Mount St. John
Dayton, OH

In 1985 the state of Ohio dug a 14-acre, 40-foot deep gravel borrow pit on the Mt. St. John property, home to the Society of Mary, an order of Catholic priests and brothers, to build an interstate around Dayton. The excavation removed some 2.7 million cubic feet of sand and gravel deposits, left by the retreating Wisconsinan glacier 17,000 years ago. Brother Don Geiger, SM, Ph.D., a plant biologist at the University of Dayton who lives at Mt. St. John, knew from more than 40 years of experience with plants and their environments that very little could survive in the harsh, dry, rocky pit left on the land. After dialogue with his superiors and members of his community, he laid plans for an Eastern tallgrass prairie, an ecosystem adapted to harsh environments and nearly extinct in Ohio. At the time of European settlement, Ohio contained more than a million acres of prairie. Today, just a few acres remain. A host of insects, birds and other wildlife dependent on prairies have experienced corresponding declines.

Before Restoration

Today, the prairie is a thriving community of more than 100 native grass and forb (non-grasslike herb) species which provide food and habitat to the local wildlife. Perhaps just as important, however, is that the experience served as an impetus to restore other acres of the 140-acre Mount St. John property. In 1991 the Marianists formed the Marianist Environmental Education Center to continue prairie restoration and undertake woodland and wetland restoration on an additional 85 acres, and to share with others the ethics of land restoration and help them develop the skills to protect and restore property where they live, worship, or minister. Since 1992, the staff and volunteers of MEEC have raised more than 20,000 wildflower and grass plants and more that 500 shrubs life in our native plant nurseries. The MSJ Nature Preserve was designated as an Ohio Natural Landmark by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), which recognized it as “an outstanding environmental education area possessing exceptional value in illustrating and interpreting the natural heritage of Ohio.” ODNR is not the only agency to recognize the value of the site; since 2001 the pond in the prairie has served as a reference target for the restoration of an old Department of Energy nuclear site now on the National Priority (Superfund).

After Restoration