Lori Totman pictured with Zali Win '84, chair of the board of directors for the Philander Chase Conservancy.
Longtime Knox County conservation leader Lori Totman was honored recently by Kenyon College’s Philander Chase Conservancy for a career spent conserving and managing natural resources.
Totman, who retired at the end of 2023 after 10 years as director of the Knox County Park District, received the Conservancy’s Jean S. Briggs Award for Leadership in Land Conservation during a special dinner on Oct. 27.
Established in 2022, the award recognizes extraordinary leadership in protecting the natural beauty, health and vibrancy of the rural lands surrounding Gambier and Kenyon. Given by the Conservancy’s board of directors, it is named for Jean Briggs, the first landowner in Knox County to work with the Conservancy to protect her farm in perpetuity through a donated agricultural easement in 2003.
The Conservancy was founded in 2000 with a mission to protect the natural beauty and ecosystems surrounding Kenyon. It has worked with farmers, landowners, environmental groups and government agencies to protect the rural character and natural resources of lands within an approximate five-mile radius around campus through conservation and agricultural easements. It is the only conservancy created by a college or university, and has protected nearly 6,000 acres of open spaces, agricultural lands, woodlands and riparian corridors.
Totman has shared in this mission of protecting the area’s natural resources during her whole career and been an invaluable partner to the Conservancy, according to its director, Amy Henricksen.
“The Philander Chase Conservancy has a longstanding history of partnership and collaboration with the Knox County Park District, and this partnership has thrived during Lori’s tenure as the park district’s director,” she said. “Our community has benefited greatly from Lori’s particular focus on the expansion of the county’s green spaces, parks and trails. For her dedication to land conservation, her leadership and her collaborative spirit, it is very fitting that the Conservancy’s board selected Lori as the 2024 recipient of the Conservancy’s Jean S. Briggs Award following her recent retirement.”
Totman and the park district partnered with the Conservancy on last year’s acquisition and protection via conservation easement of 62 acres adjoining Wolf Run Regional Park on its north side. She also was instrumental in envisioning the Knox County Greenway project, which led to the Conservancy’s acquisition of 124 acres on Yauger Road, connecting Wolf Run Regional Park to the Brown Family Environmental Center at Kenyon.
Over the years, Totman was at the heart of the development and growth of the park district through numerous public educational programs and events, green space acquisitions, and collaborative efforts aimed at improving the parks and trails.
Under her leadership, two public funding measures were passed, and park district staff increased to care for over 1,400 acres under the jurisdiction of the park district, including nine parks, 10 river access points on the Kokosing and Mohican state scenic rivers, and 14 multi-use trails.
Other accomplishments include the fact that, during her career, Totman entered into 15-year lease agreements with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife on Brinkhaven Park, the Mohican River Wildlife Area, and an area along Zuck Road and the Kokosing River to protect the endangered eastern hellbender and spotted darter. She collaborated with The Nature Conservancy on a mitigation project for the wetlands at Bat Nest Park as well as the removal of the hazardous low-head dam near Brinkhaven.