Volunteers digging into county reforestation effort

MADISON TOWNSHIP -A strip-mined section of land recently acquired by the Columbiana County Park District is expected to see new life as a forest after volunteers converged on the site Saturday to plant up to 3,000 trees.

"The benefit (from this) is from so many different angles," said Ben Shapiro, a federal Office of Surface Mining/Vista worker assigned to the county. He coordinated the reforestation effort in conjunction with the park district, the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative and the Little Beaver Creek Land Foundation, a local preservation organization that suggested the project.

The park district purchased the 460 acres off East Liverpool Road from the Dailey Family Trust with grants from the state's Clean Ohio Conservation Fund and the Nature Conservancy. The acquisition protects from development a mile of shoreline along the West Fork of the Little Beaver Creek, which is a state and national designated Wild and Scenic River.

About 100 of the 460 acres were strip mined in the early 1980s and nothing much has grown on the land since it was reclaimed. "This was reclaimed in such a way that trees won't grow very well ... and this is a problem all across Appalachia," said Patrick Angel, director of the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative.

Soil compaction and a high clay concentration are the problems, according to Angel, who said the strip-mined land needed tilled just like a garden before saplings could be planted. A tractor pulling a ripping bar with four-foot teeth was brought in to till the ground.

Shapiro said they originally intended to plant 1,000 trees over 1 acre but expanded their effort to 3 acres after learning volunteer groups were donating another 2,000 saplings. The saplings included a mix of mostly hardwoods, such as oak, hickory, redbud, dogwood, hazelnut, silver maple, black locust, American plums and 10 rare blight-resistant American chestnuts.

The particular site was chosen "because that's the area where water tends to collect and run off to the rest of the property," Shapiro said. Run off poses problems for streams, such as Beaver Creek, and the trees' root system will greatly reduce that problem.

"From an environmental standpoint, the benefit is tremendous," he said.

The forest that will hopefully rise up some day will also serve as a magnet for wildlife, increasing the wildlife diversity of the area. Shapiro said neighbors who stopped by or helped with the planting recalled when the property was mostly woods.

Approximately 83 volunteers showed up yesterday, and they were instructed and assisted in the proper way to plant trees by eight foresters who donated their time. Aside from individuals, other volunteers included a Boy Scout troup and groups from local Huntington National Bank branches, the United Brethren Church of Christ in East Liverpool and the First United Methodist Church of Christ.

The park district will eventually developed the property to include an access road, a parking lot and picnic pavilion and is also contemplated is a hiking trail connecting the property to nearby Beaver Creek State Park. The property would be open to the public but for limited use, such as hiking, fishing and hunting.

tgiambroni@mojonews.com