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Improved Boone Cliff Nature preserve reopens after 18 months; more areas accessible to the public


By Kevin Eigelbach
NKyTribune reporter

Hebron resident Bob Young loves to walk Boone Cliffs Nature Preserve and photograph the wildflowers he sees.

Hebron resident Bob Young on a recent viit to Boone Cliffs Nature Preserve (provided photo).

When he visited the Boone County attraction recently, for the first time in more than a year, he saw a wildflower he’d never seen there before – a Virginia bluebell.

He was on a part of the preserve he’d not visited before. That happened because during a recent renovation of the preserve, the county reconfigured the mile-long trail that runs through the preserve, lengthening it and opening new areas to the public, he said.

Boone County Fiscal Court closed the preserve in September 2016, and it remained closed until earlier this month. The court acted because the preserve, which attracts hikers from all over the region, had become a victim of its own success.

Neighbors had complained about visitors’ cars blocking Middle Creek Road, the narrow road that provides the only access to the preserve. Inside the preserve, hikers had started making their own trails and were camping overnight, leaving behind trash.

Boone Cliffs is not a recreational area but a preserve, where visitors are expected to hike on established trails, respect the property and not stay overnight.

Boone Cliffs entrance (photo by Kevin Eigelbach).

The county purchased the preserve, which is about five miles west of Burlington, in 2010 from the Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit that operated it along with the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission. The money came via a grant from the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund, which gets its money in part from sales of nature-themed license plates.

During the shutdown, Covington-based Plum Hill Ecological Services did a flora and fauna inventory for the fiscal court. Plum Hill found 249 plant species, 216 of them native and some fairly rare.

Plum Hill’s inventory called it “one of the most unique and diverse natural areas in the Northern Kentucky region.” The pristine area’s never been plowed or developed, probably because it’s very hilly.

The preserve might have more species of fern than any other wild place in Northern Kentucky, Plum Hill found.

After several meetings with local residents, the county made a number of improvements designed to alleviate the traffic problem and protect the preserve:

  • Installed a retractable gate across the small parking lot that the county has agreed to open at dawn and close at dusk, to discourage overnight stays.
  • Put up “No Parking” signs along Middle Creek Road on either side of the parking lot;
  • Installed new trail markers and educational signs about rare species of plants found in the preserve, as well as invasive species like honeysuckle.
  • Rerouted the beginning of the trail, which climbs up a steep ridge, away from the spring that runs through the preserve.
  • Reconfigured the end of the trail, which descends from the same ridge, by installing switchbacks to make for an easier hike.

The Fiscal Court also recently hired Victor Vanover as its first land manager, to oversee the preserve and the county’s other public lands, such as the nearby 105-acre Dinsmore Woods Nature Preserve.

Last fall, as part of his Eagle Scout project, Florence resident Dylan Wright put up a new, larger entrance sign and informational kiosk for visitors to Boone Cliffs.

Since the park reopened, the county’s received one complaint in relation to the preserve, a car blocking a driveway, which the sheriff’s department took care of, said County Administrator Jeff Earlywine.

County officials didn’t do everything neighbors had recommended for the preserve, he said, and not everyone was 100 percent pleased with what was done. The county has taken a wait-and-see attitude toward some of their ideas, he said.

“We all want the public to be able to enjoy what is a public asset and want the public to use the property as it should be used, and play by the rules in a way that doesn’t impact the residents that live close by,” Earlywine said.

Young often called county officials during the shutdown to check on its progress and got a bit frustrated at how long it took. But it’s clear that a lot of forethought and planning went into the renovation, he said.

Word’s gotten out about the reopening, he said, adding that the parking lot was full the day he visited.

He likes to visit during the week, when no one else is there, to relax and have the place to himself.

“Boone Cliffs is a special spot,” he said.

Contact the Northern Kentucky Tribune at news@nkytrib.com


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