Dickerson to address enhancement of local land conservancy

For more than 20 years, Oak Heritage Conservancy (OHC) served as the only conservation group in southeastern Indiana. The organization has worked to protect more than 1,100 acres of land with special natural, agricultural, scenic or cultural significance across an 11-county area.

In October 2025, Cardinal Land Conservancy (CLC) officially acquired OHC’s real estate and financial assets, completing a merger that increases the capacity to protect more Hoosier land. This unification will aid the preservation of climate resilient forests, meadows, grasslands, wetlands and waterways in the region.

Andy Dickerson, CLC executive director, will discuss the 2025 merger at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 19, in the Science Center, room 137. The event is open to the public, free of charge.

Dickerson is a founding member of the Valley View Foundation and has served as director of science for the Ohio Chapter of the Nature Conservancy. A trained facilitator and conservation business planner, he works to protect land and has worked with farmers to capitalize on the conservation benefits of the U.S. farm bill.

Oak Heritage Conservancy was formed in 2002 in cooperation with Historic Hoosier Hills Resource Conservation and Development, Inc. Initially a volunteer-operated entity, the organization hired Liz Otte Brownlee ’09 as its first executive director in 2015. Several Hanover faculty and staff members have served on OHC’s board, including Eric Dodge (economics), Kate Johnson (philosophy), Glené Mynhart (biology) and Greg Schneider (physical plant). The late J. Dan Webster, professor emeritus of biology, was a founding member.

Cardinal Land Conservancy – created through a unification between The Land Conservancy of Hamilton County Ohio, Clinton County Open Lands Inc., and Southern Ohio Farmland Preservation Association – has protected and restored natural lands in a seven-county area in southwestern Ohio since its incorporation in 1999. CLC acquires conservation interests in real properties, then monitors and stewards the properties and interests through regular oversight, periodic assessment and, if needed, protective action and legal defense.