The Arc of Appalachia's mission is to protect the rich diversity of life of America's Great Eastern Temperate Forest, as the large biome expresses itself in the southern Ohio region.
The lower Rocky Fork cuts through a dolomite gorge which presents a classic karst landscape of grottos, vertical rock walls and canyons, sinkholes, seeps and springs.
It also preserves a large ridgetop walled-enclosure built by the American Indian Hopewell Culture 2000 years ago, a culture responsible for impressively large ancient ceremonial complexes built primarily of earth in southern Ohio, Serpent Mound is an internationally renowned archaeological site which also protects an ancient American Indian earthworks, an accurately portrayed earthen serpent, resting on a flat ridgetop which overlooks Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County.
Another ongoing project is to raise funds for the protection of Glenford Fort Earthworks in Perry County, a stone ridgetop enclosure surrounded by 65 acres of Appalachian forest.
The Arc of Appalachia preserves provide refuge for dozens of state threatened and endangered plants and animals, and several state-imperiled natural communities.