New Albany Nature Preserve and Wetlands
New Albany Nature Preserve and Wetlands offers a natural setting with hiking trails and elevated boardwalks through a wet woods and wetland area. It is noted for being good for kids and having kid-friendly hikes. Accessibility features include a wheelchair accessible parking lot. While the preserve provides an opportunity for a quick walk with dogs and nature observation, reviews indicate some maintenance challenges including overgrown trails and the wetlands being dried up or muddy at times. Despite this, it remains a green space valued by the community, though it could benefit from more care and upkeep.
Reviews
This place was a huge disappointment! There was no “wetlands”…just a bunch of mud pits with sticks and branches sticking out of them. Where there was water was disgusting. There was a layer of some kind of film on top of it. I don’t think this place is being taking care of at all. Maybe in the past, but not now.
A great little nature preserve right across the street from New Albany High School. There are nice elevated trails as well as boardwalks to cross low areas. There are also platforms to walk out into the wetlands to better observe the local environment.
It’s sad to me to see the state of this place. When little bits of land are spared and a label gets slapped on them like “nature preserve”, we tend to think that it’s all good. But the reality is, this is a wet woods/wetland area that was probably unable to be developed into anything else. Now here it sits, surrounded by homes with (almost) no one willing to step up and care for it. I did happen to see someone picking up trash there one day – bless her heart. But to the rest who live nearby and the city that pretends it doesn’t exist, shame on you. If you’re going to preserve fragments of land and make them publicly accessible, set them on a better path (clear the invasives, maintain trails, stop folks from cutting trees for use in forts, etc.). When will our last vestiges of “greenspace” stop being an afterthought? Sad.
A nice place to take a quick walk with your dog. Many of the paths are elevated or have grass so even though I went on a rainy day we didn’t get muddy or anything like that. It’s nice to be in the woods and there are a few interesting things to see; but you won’t escape the sound of cars rushing by or light from street lamp and houses so it never truly feels like you’re in nature.
I read the reviews about New Albany Nature Preserve and Wetlands so I was aware that it might not be in great condition. Also we haven’t had a substantial rainfall in a while. The wetlands were almost completely dried up. The trails were in fairly good shape on one side of the preserve but on the side where the boardwalk and observation platforms are it’s quite different. The trails are overgrown and the boardwalk and observation platforms have seen better days. One of the trails that is marked on Google Maps actually is a driveway that leads to a house in the middle of what is the overgrown preserve. Also, there are a couple of signs that are from when George Voinovich was governor of Ohio in the 1990’s. The preserve and wetlands were probably excellent in the 90’s and could be again if maintained.