Terradise Nature Center strives to “inform and engage our communities in their natural history, heritage and resources.” This is done by the drive of our Board and staff enthusiastically facilitating the education and study of Terradise Nature Preserve, the Olentangy River and associated wetlands and forest.
Born in Cincinnati, OH, Jed attended The Ohio State University where he earned his BFA in Art and Technology in 2001. He is partner and lead developer at Mast Interactive, a web development company located in Columbus, OH. As the grandson of Trella Romine, Jed grew up with a deep appreciation of nature. This has been carried through in helping to start the Terradise Nature Center.
David Haldeman is the son of Trella H. Romine, who in 1953 built the home that is now the Terradise Nature Center.
David was born in Marion, Ohio in 1945 and attended Mark Street School before moving to Caledonia in 1953. Attending Caledonia School through the 9th grade, he transferred to Marion Harding High School, graduating in 1963. He obtained his B.S. in Education (Music Major) from The Ohio State University in 1967 after having played in the Jazz Workshop under Ladd McIntosh and the Ohio State University Marching Band. He taught at Pleasant High School and Mt. Gilead Elementary School before his marriage to Karen Meister in 1969 and subsequent move to Cincinnati in 1970.
In Cincinnati, David taught music at Anderson Middle School, and then he and Karen purchased Vielhauer Pork Products at the historic Findlay Market in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine district. An interest in science and technology prompted the purchase of a personal computer, which he soon learned to program. This led to the founding of Terradise Computer Systems in 1983. He is currently president of that company.
David serves on the Board of Trustees of the Mt. Washington Cemetery Association as Vice President. He is a 60 year member of the American Federation of Musicians and continues to play the trombone in various professional groups in Cincinnati.
David and Karen have 4 adult children, one of whom is also a Terradise Nature Center Board Member, Jed Haldeman of Columbus.
After the death of his mother in 2013, David inherited the 6 acres on the right bank of the Olentangy River, which he donated to found the Terradise Nature Center in 2018.
Jess, Caledonia Northern Principal (b. 1988: Westerville, Ohio) is a community-based cultural worker, non-profit consultant, folklorist, oral historian, public historian, exhibit co-curator and multi-media documentarian based in Columbus and Caledonia, Ohio. She is founder and principal at Marion-based cultural work consultancy Caledonia Northern Folk Studios; and is co-founder and project director of the Marion Voices Folklife + Oral History Project, with community cultural organizer and educator Johnnie Jackson and the Marion County Historical Society. Jess’ cultural work projects imagine cultural work for social change at the intersections of food, health, racial, economic and environmental justice, place, and memory, with a particular attention to vernacular perspectives and beliefs and activism around ecology, everyday toxicity, community cultural resistance to structural violence, and ideas of place and home. Jess specializes in capacity-building for small, grassroots, and community-based organizations and non-profits using a hybrid arts, heritage, and folklife toolkit; and is passionate about organizing and advising towards deep, transformative racial, social, and economic justice work in the non-profit cultural work sphere. She is also passionate about historic preservation, place-keeping, arts- and heritage-based sustainable economic development, and culture-driven grassroots downtown revitalization efforts in rural communities across the U.S. — including in her mother’s hometown of Caledonia, Ohio, located in Northeastern Marion County. caledonianorthern.org || marionvoices.org
George is a graduate of Capital University with a degree in music education and came to Marion for a teaching position in 1964 at River Valley and was the band and orchestra director for 21 years.
Dr. Decker has 25 years of experience working in different aspects of the radio frequency spectrum while both enlisted and as an officer in the U.S. Navy. During his time in the Navy he started out as a Fire Controlman – that is, controlling the firing of guns and missiles from surface ships. This job also entailed the operation, maintenance, and repair of gun fire control radars, missile fire control radars, 2D and 3D air search radars and their associated systems. During his first enlisted shore tour, then FC1(SW) Decker taught missile fire control system operations and tactics during the day while working on a BSc in Workforce Education and Development in the evenings and weekends.
As a Naval Flight Officer, Lieutenant Commander Decker flew in the S- 3B Viking and the EA-6B Prowler off the decks of the aircraft carriers USS Carl Vinson and the USS Nimitz. This job included the operation of several different types of radar and sensor systems, including weather radars, navigation radars, tracking radars, inverse synthetic aperture radars, forward-looking infrared detection systems, magnetic anomaly detectors and the Navy’s premier radar and communications jamming system. During his first shore tour as an officer he took the opportunity to get his MSc in the physics of sensor systems at the Naval Post Graduate School, with a concentration in radar and optical wave propagation theory.
Dr. Decker also has several years of experience in program management. As an Aerospace Engineering Duty Officer with the US Navy, he led a team of over 50 military and civilian employees in the very detailed work of installing classified weapons systems on Naval aircraft. This entailed knowledge and skills in systems engineering, contracting officer responsibilities, science and technology management and risk management. He took classes in all these areas and achieved the highest levels of training available from the military school of acquisition, the Defense Acquisition University, then put this knowledge to work for Naval Air Systems Command.
After retiring from the Navy in 2010, he returned to graduate school for a PhD in geology. Geology and caving had been hobbies since he was a small boy and in retirement, he decided to pursue that interest. While finishing his PhD, he decided to put all his knowledge, experience, and expertise into starting his own business and Southwest Geophysical Consulting was born. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Principal Geophysicist of this small but growing company that uses geophysics to locate caves and other karst-related features. Dr. Decker has recently served as a director on the Board of Governors for the National Speleological Society and is currently serving a term as a director with the Karst Waters Institute. He is happily married to the former Johanna Clinger of San Diego, California and will be celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary in 2020.
Terradise Nature Center has been fortunate enough to work with several individuals over the years who have been invaluable contributors, friends, and partners in the shared vision to “inform and engage our communities in their natural history, heritage and resources.”
Tyler Butler is a graduate of The Ohio State University with a degree in agricultural communications and animal science. A passionate educator and naturalist, Tyler has had the pleasure of building and implementing conservation sciences programming both inside the classroom and out-of-doors. Most recently, Tyler has returned from the Cape Cod National Seashore where he served as a Teacher/Naturalist for the National Environmental Educations Development Academy. He proudly served the Terradise Nature Center as executive director, program coordinator, and naturalist from 2018 through 2020. Tyler shares an enthusiasm for the rich heritage and natural resources of the Olentangy Watershed with Terradise and the community. Tyler loves to hit the trails with his camera, has an affinity for live music and is a collector of all things American bison.
Emily Ollervides is the founder and owner of ECO Center LLC in Caledonia, Ohio. She operates ECO Center on her 9-acre farm, located within Morrow County. She is passionate about environmental sustainability and outdoor education. Emily’s efforts within the business are focused on educating children and local families through educational events, summer camps, workshops, and field trips. She believes there is a direct connection between physical and emotional health and an individual’s access to nature. She is a 2004 graduate from The Ohio State University where she earned a B.S. in Environmental Policy & Planning. Before opening ECO Center in 2014 she worked as an Environmental Project Manager in New York, as a researcher and educator in Baja California, Mexico, and most recently as a National Account Manager within the landscape industry. She and her husband, Francisco “Paco” Ollervides are proud parents of their two children, Sofia and Nicolas.
Gale E. Martin owns Natives in Harmony Nursery near Marengo Ohio. She is a champion for preservation of local-genotypes and offers high quality, genetically appropriate native forbs and grasses as well as providing education on the pollinators that use them. Gale’s goal is to make Ohio genotypes available for anyone interested in using natives to create habitat for native pollinators, birds, and other native wildlife species.
Gale is recently retired as the Executive Director of the Marion County Historical Society, and the Wyandot Popcorn Museum, positions she held for 13 years. Over the years she has been involved with the Morrow County Soil and Water Conservation District, worked as a naturalist at the Mount Gilead State Park, and served on the following boards: Appalachia Ohio Alliance, Ohio Prairie Association, Headwaters Outdoor Education Center, Terradise Nature Center, and the Olentangy Watershed Alliance.
Terradise Nature Center
1536 Whetstone River Road North
Caledonia, Ohio 43314
Mailing Address:
6404 Coffey St
Cincinnati, OH 45230