MBA Program | Farmer School of Business - Miami University
hiker crossing a bridge
bird
bee on a flower
buck grazing on locinera
 backpacker

Features and Events

Volunteers needed to hack Honeysuckle at Silvoor Biological Sanctuary

Man using huge shear to cut back honeysuckle

Are you ready to work in the woods? Join us for our annual Fall Honeysuckle Hacks in Silvoor Biological Sanctuary! We need volunteers to help remove this woody shrub and other non-native invasive plants out of our wildflower preserve. Volunteers will meet organizers at Peffer Park and go through a quick orientation before getting started.

  • Saturday, Nov. 4 (Noon-2 p.m.)
  • Saturday, Dec. 2 (Noon-2 p.m.)

Sign up to volunteer

Contact Amanda Brymer at bentleal@MiamiOH.edu with questions. 

2023 Hike-A-Thon

Family hiking at the hike-a-thon

The 2023 Hike-A-Thon was held on September 9, and attracted over 500 Miami University students and area residents. This year's Hike-a-Thon commemorated the progress of the Oxford Area Trail System (OATS), a paved multi-use path that now extends from Peffer Park, past the DeWitt trailhead, to Leonard Howell Park. Many of the unpaved Natural Areas trails intersect OATS, and participants also walked some of these trails.

Read Austin Smith's story in the Miami Student

Miami University Natural Areas behind the scene(ry): a Q-and-A with ecologist Dave Gorchov and field manager Nancy Feakes

Dave GorchovNancy Feakes works on a set of wooden steps on a steep trail

With nearly 1,000 acres and 17 miles of trails in our backyard, the Natural Areas are an invaluable resource for recreation, teaching, and research, by Susan Meikle, University Communications and Marketing.

Read the Q and A

Biology and Sustainability junior investigates effects of the overabundant deer population in the Natural Areas and Ecology Research Center

Elea Cooper '24 in a local forest near one of the trail cameras she set up for her research.

Elea Cooper ‘24 is working to investigate deer abundance and its impact on tree regeneration.

Read about Elea Cooper's research in the Natural Areas

Oxford Stories

Winding road lined with brightly colored fall trees

How wildlife impacts humans and how humans impact wildlife. Read the article.

Bobcat Sighting in Natural Areas

Bobcat walking on a fallen log in a wooded area

A trail camera placed and monitored by Miami University students captured a video of a bobcat, the first known photograph of this elusive and solitary animal taken in Miami’s Natural Areas. 

Read Sam Norton's article in The Miami Student Magazine Spring 2023 about the significance of this bobcat sighting.

Read more about the bobcat sighting

Deer Management Program to Continue in 2023-24

Following the successful harvest of 20 deer in the 2022-2023 deer bow hunting season, we are again soliciting hunters to help reduce the deer population in the Natural Areas and Ecology Research Center during the 2023-24 deer bow hunting season. Hunting will be permitted in a couple of additional areas, and the hunting season of Nov. 18 to Feb. 4 will be divided into three separate permit periods, allowing three to four weeks of hunting per selected hunter.

More information: 

fires, hunting, bicycling, and camping are not permitted in the natural areas

Fires, hunting, bicycling, and camping are not permitted in the Natural Areas.