The Cincinnati Nature Center's education programs once reached 12,000 school children each year. The Cincinnati Nature Center at Rowe Woods is going through many changes. The Old guard of naturalists are being replaced by a new regime of neo-environmentalist. The old mission statement has been scraped and a new mission in place. The old idea of allowing the land to return to it's natural state has been changed to a new Disneyesque type of nature place. A new simulated nature playground has replaced once pristine fields and woodlands. Gone are many of the wooden walkways and areas kids use to explore nature naturally

The main reason this website was set up, is honor and remember Stanley Rowe and the people who saved Lob's Wood and the Cincinnati Nature Center. To chronicle by photographs the history of Rowe Woods from the beginning to present day. Since I started this website  volunteer to CNC  Jane Stotts has a great PDF  telling the history timeline of how Carl Krippendorf came to start Lob's Woods and Stanley Rowe and others starting the Cincinnati Nature Center. So this site is evolving to a photographic  history for what has become a place where one can join with nature a woodland paradise near the city. Their main focus was to be a nature preserve for education.. The Audubon's main goal of  "to educate people in the ways that nature works and how they should be safeguarded." when Stanley and the others first set out on the mission.

My family lives next to Rowe Woods, and we have enjoyed walking Rowe Woods for many years. We have watched with enjoyment in some of the changes. The expansion that has taken place over the years and trail improvements. We’ve also been saddened by some of the changes in Rowe Woods. Many people who worked and did studies at CNC use to be neighbors. Times change and so do places,  I hope Stanley would be happy with the changes in the Cincinnati Nature Center at Rowe Woods. His mission was changed, time will tell.  

CNC is less part of the neighborhood than it was when we first moved here 20 years ago. There were more workers at the Nature Center who lived next to us or in the general area. Mr. Berry was very approachable as were all the workers like Tom and Wanda. Some workers still live near by, other houses have burnt down or were cleared for frontage. It was sad when they removed the nice house that workers and people doing studies of bats and other nature experiments. When Mr. Berry left things began to change. I knew it would not be the same when I saw a good fur tree cut down just to place a sign at the entrance to Rowe Woods. CNC is more about image and business, not being neighborhood friendly

Times changes and I guess so has how Cincinnati Nature Center now being operated. It is not like the Sunday pancake gatherings and meeting and talking with workers like the old days. My neighbor and I wonder sometimes about the changes and we just shake our heads. Much in Rowe Woods is the same and much has changed over the last 20 years. To soon to tell what it will be like 20 years from now.  I now go to Shor Park Nature Preserve, a free park just south down Tealtown Road and Eastgate. Silvia Shor dedicated it to David Shor her late husband who love the horse farm and nature. A great place to go if you can not afford membership to Cincinnati Nature Center or the daily entrance fees to Rowe Woods.

I’m a photographer and have taken many photos in Rowe Woods over the years. Rowe Woods Photographs are available here, and updated regularly, for your enjoyment and perhaps purchase. This website is to honor the people past and present who have worked and live in or near Lob's Wood now Rowe Woods and the Cincinnati Nature Center. Located in North Union Township  Milford Ohio.

The original Mission Statement for Cincinnati Nature Center.

Provide the Greater Cincinnati community, especially young people, the opportunity to experience, study and enjoy the natural world. Encourage understanding, appreciation, and responsible stewardship of the environment through education. Preserve the heritage and integrity of Cincinnati Nature Center natural and agricultural lands.  

The website is for the enjoyment of all who have visited or do visit Rowe Woods.
The many people who over time who have contributed to the vision Stanley and the other people wanted. It is to enjoy Rowe Woods and remember in detail the people who founded CNC and its main purpose. It is also dedicated to all who have lived and worked in Rowe Woods. This website is not affiliated with the Cincinnati Nature Center.

This site is dedicated to 
Stanley M. Rowe Sr., Karl H. Maslowski, and the other founders of the Cincinnati Nature Center

Dennis Camp Copyright © 2006 - 2012