The Glen Helen natural area owned by Antioch College will be permanently protected with a legally-binding conservation easement purchased in part with Ohio Environmental Protection Agency funds, The Trust for Public Land, Antioch College, and the Tecumseh Land Trust announced Tuesday.

“Antioch College has made good on its commitment to safeguard this irreplaceable asset,” said Nick Boutis, director of the Glen Helen Ecology Institute. “Everyone who loves the Glen can now rest assured that it is secured as an ecological resource.”

The preserve’s 20-mile network of footpaths takes visitors to 400 year-old trees, limestone cliffs with waterfalls and overhangs, and the “yellow” spring for which the nearby village is named. The spring produces 60 gallons a minute of iron-rich water.

In 2011, The Trust for Public Land reached an agreement to help Antioch College to permanently protect the nearly-thousand-acre glen, which includes a two-and-a-half mile section of the Little Miami River and two of its major tributaries.

The first of what will be two conservation easements, covering 536 acres, has been completed. What that means is that the Dayton Foundation will hold in trust the $1.63 million in easement funding to permanently help maintain the Glen.

The funding included $1.2 million from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Resource Restoration Sponsor Program, $200,000 from the Dayton Foundation’s Little Miami Upper River Fund, and $237,162 from the Clean Ohio Fund.

A second easement, covering the remaining acreage, is expected to be completed later in 2013. Boutis said the sales of the two easements will help support the land stewardship and environmental learning programs of the Glen Helen Ecology Institute.

“There is no greater treasure here than Glen Helen,” said Land Trust Executive Director Krista Magaw. “It is the center of our ecology and our quality of life. It’s an honor to do our part to protect it.”

Said Boutis: “The money means the Glen will enjoy protection that it has never had.”