Ohio is using an IMAX documentary to tell what it calls an environmental comeback story centered on the state’s parks and wildlife conservation work, according to the Associated Press.
The film, “Ohio: Wild at Heart,” features Ohio’s top-ranked park system and is intended to highlight both wildlife conservation efforts and the restorative power of outdoor recreation. The project, filmed over more than a year, is drawing large crowds at science museums around the state, and is scheduled to move into classrooms next year.
The Associated Press reported that the $2.5 million project was paid for with information and education funds. The film’s creators said the goal is to translate the state’s conservation mission into a sweeping visual format that audiences can experience in person.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Mary Mertz described the project in a quoted statement, calling it “a love letter to the mission of protecting our natural resources and expanding opportunities to explore.”
Ricky Jackson, a conservationist and taxidermist from Gallipolis in Ohio’s Appalachian region, said he was surprised by what the IMAX presentation covered. Jackson told reporters, “It was just really, really unexpected to see so much diversity all filmed in Ohio.”
Jackson said he viewed the film at its premier at COSI, Columbus’ science center, last fall. After that screening, he said the film was “very cool, very well done,” and that he learned a lot; he added, “It was very motivating,” saying it made him want to see parts of the state “you’ve never seen, or experience nature in Ohio in a way that you just didn’t know was available.”
The documentary is narrated by Ohio State football great Archie Griffin. The AP reported that the film depicts Ohio landscapes from the lighthouse-dotted shores of Lake Erie in the north to the towering limestone formations of the hilly south, including the Hocking Hills.
The film also places Ohio’s conservation efforts in broader environmental context, including the Cuyahoga River’s 1969 fire in Cleveland and what the AP described as its role in sparking the modern environmental movement and the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The AP reported that, just ahead of the 50th anniversary of the fire six years ago, the river’s fish were declared once again safe to eat.
Among other conservation stories, “Ohio: Wild at Heart” includes an effort to relocate rare trumpeter swans to Ohio marshlands and a wildlife biologists’ program to repopulate once endangered bald eagles. The film also features Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and his wife Fran walking nature paths lined with pages from children’s stories, described as “storybook trails.”
The AP reported that the film emphasizes nature’s mental health benefits as well, including scenes quoting a naturalist who says, “People feel like you have to go far away to experience nature,” and a volunteer who says, “We restore nature, nature restores us.”
In the film, people are shown participating in recreational activities described by the AP as varied as hiking, kayaking, birding, ice fishing and dog-sledding, with the film presenting those outdoor activities as helping restore bodies, benefiting mental health, combating loneliness and salvaging self-esteem.
Videojournalist Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos contributed to the report.