by Steve Murphy

In 2008, my bike favorite ride was from Morrow to Corwin. Once in Corwin I went straight to the Corwin Peddler to sit on the porch and watch the world go by.

At that time the Corwin Peddler was run by the Copples, Simeon and his wife Ann. Ann managed the “back of the house" (kitchen) and Simeon the “front of the house" (guests). With his British accent and easy manner Simeon was easy to engage in conversation, and because he was an aerospace engineer and world traveler the conversation was broad and stimulating.

However, Simeon’s favorite topic was the trail, and because he talked with so many people, Simeon represented a broad spectrum of ideas and opinions. But then in the fall of 2008 the subject matter of our conversation turned serious--there has been three serious accidents on the trail in 2008, i.e. broken tibia, broken pelvis, and partial paralysis, all because of one or more of 15 oaken trail bridges which would turn treacherous with any amount of moisture. And because the 50-mile trail was “use at your own risk,” these three people had no recourse to the State of Ohio.

Simeon and I and several others decided that something needed to be done, so we called a meeting for Saturday November 16, 2008. With Simeon’s broad network of trail users it was not difficult to assemble attendees--actually, we got 27. We gathered in a Caesar Creek lodge on this cold wintery night.

It was not difficult for those assembled to agree that we had a serious problem and needed to take action. We decided to form a non-profit group in support of the trail and call ourselves “The Friends of the Little Miami State Park," thereby joining the other 56 “Friends” groups in the State of Ohio. We elected officers--Simeon was elected founder and president. We scheduled a follow-up meeting for November 26 in order to get down to the basics of actually launching the non-profit. On March 9, 2009 we received our “Letter of determination” from the IRS that we were officially a non-profit. The rest they say is history: 

• We paved over 12 of the bridges in 2009 and the remaining 3 in 2010. We have not had a serious injury on the bridges since.
• For trail maintenance we initiated an Adopt-a-trail program, chainsaw “minuteman” teams, 3 tool caches, and a cadre of volunteers.
• More recently we have repaved 10 miles of the trail.
• This year we celebrate our 10th anniversary of the Friends group--Simeon would be proud.

Although Simeon monitored the Friends' efforts and successes over time, he had to resign from the Board in early 2015 for business and family reasons. Simeon was an aerospace engineer working for GE and Rolls-Royce which meant he would spend weeks at a time in Great Britain.

I have fond memories of sitting on the porch of the Corwin Peddler and chatting with the very congenial Simeon Copple with the British accent. And because of Simeon’s vision, we started something special that has stood the test of time--the Friends of the Little Miami State Park.

I miss him.

Simeon Copple passed away suddenly on April 23, 2019, just one day before his 63rd birthday.

In 1979, fifty miles of the Little Miami Scenic Trail was established as Ohio's only trail-corridor State Park. As one of the nation's first Rails-to-Trails projects, much of the trail follows the Little Miami River, a state and national scenic river, making it one of the most beautiful and shaded multi-purpose trails in the country. And with over 1.3 million visits each year, it has become one of the most popular! Celebrate this remarkable state park with us on its 40th birthday enjoying the activities below.

Event Flyer
Details and Registration
Vendor Application

Route Map

by Sarah Stankavich

For eight years, the Ohio Division of Wildlife has been conducting mobile bat acoustic surveys across the state with the help of volunteers. These surveys began as a way to help monitor bat populations after white-nose syndrome, a disease associated with large-scale bat mortality, was found in Ohio. A survey route through Little Miami State Park was added in 2018, making it the 44th route in the program. During July, volunteers attach a microphone to the top of their car that is connected to an Anabat. As the volunteer drives, the Anabat records the echolocation calls of bats passing overhead. These data, like that on the graph at left, can later be imported into computer programs that help identify which species of bats are present along a route. Using these acoustic surveys, we can gain insight into bat population trends across the state each year.

Data from the Little Miami route in 2018 shows that big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus), hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus), and evening bats (Nycticeius humeralis) are likely the most abundant species in the area. The recorders also picked up possible calls from tri-colored bats (Perimyotis subflavus), silver-haired bats (Lasionycteris noctivagans), and Myotis species (like that in the photo above), although in low numbers. Because it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish species from one another using acoustic data, adding additional data from upcoming years will help paint a clearer picture of the species composition in this area.
The graph below shows the number of bat detections each survey night. The bats are grouped into categories based on the minimum frequency of their echolocation call. The low frequency group includes big brown, silver haired, and hoary bats. The mid-frequency group includes evening bats, tri-colored bats, and eastern red bats (Lasiurus borealis). The Myotis group includes all bats in the genus Myotis.

Sarah Stankavich holds a B.S. in biology from The University of Akron and a M.S. in biology from Eastern Washington University. She has studied bats in Ohio, Washington, Arizona, and Puerto Rico. Sarah currently works at the ODNR Division of Wildlife, where she coordinates several bat and pollinator projects.

April 2019