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A collboration of citizens and organizations dedicated to the stewardship and continued restoration of the natural enviornment of the Little Cities Microregion of Ohio while finding ways to develop appropriate and sustainable new economies around geotourism and other low impact activity. Once defined as a vital center of the extractive industries of coal, oil, clay and iron ore in America, this microregion today lives with the legacy of a boom-to-bust industrial era that took place a century ago. The creation of Ohio's only national forest here in the 1930's combined with subsequent regulation of extractive industries and innovative environmental restoration projects has transformed the once ravaged area into a place of growing environmental beauty and diversity. The collection and research of the history of the area during the Hocking Valley Coal Boom Era provides an additional asset to the microregion of having the distinction of playing nationally significant roles in the nation's early labor union movement and groundbreaking roles in breaking race and ethnic barriers in the early coal fields and mining communities. The economy and physical condition of the communities in the microregion, however, remain a source of deep concern, as do other modern pressures on the land. This collaboration is interested in protecting while at the same time building a better future for this place by creating value around it's environmental and historical importance by adopting the principals of environmental stewardship and geotourism.
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