MILLFIELD, Ohio — Weston Lombard grew up with an expansive wilderness right out his back door in Dover Township.
“We’d just go out the back door and follow the creek until we got tired, and we’d spend the whole day exploring,” Lombard said.
That land was — and still is — owned by the Sugar Creek Coal Company. Now, Rising Appalachia, the Millfield-based forestry and education nonprofit Lombard co-founded, is leading an effort to purchase the company’s 900 acres to conserve the forest and use it for the public good.
“As the landscape gets parceled into smaller and smaller tracts of land, it’s hard to find areas where you can just go out and explore. So we’re trying to provide that in a somewhat residential neighborhood and make sure that the next generation still has a place to explore and play in and be inspired by,” Lombard said.
If successful in achieving its grand vision, the proposed Sugar Creek Community Forest would connect Strouds Run State Park to the community forest, the ecological and education center Rising Appalachia operates at Solid Ground Farm, and the Wayne National Forest and Baileys Trail System. In total, the forest would connect over 75,000 acres for recreation and wildlife.
Conserving the forest would also protect over four miles of streams.
The coal company ceased mining the land in 1923, according to a grant application for the community forest. Since then, parcels on the land have been intermittently clear-cut on 40-to-60 year rotations.
Meanwhile, it hasn’t been just Lombard’s family enjoying the forest. Rising Appalachia co-founder and land steward Molly Jo Stanley described the property as an “unofficial commons.”
“Folks are hunting and foraging for mushrooms and plants, and that’s what we’d like to see,” Stanley said.
However, the current state of affairs won’t last much longer.
“In recent years, rising land values, increased property taxes, and growing development pressures have led the landowner to sell off selected parcels to the highest bidder,” a Rising Appalachia grant application states.
The owner “plans to sell off each parcel after logging rather than retain them,” the application says. “He has done this with two other parcels in the last year and assures us that the parcels we wish to purchase are scheduled for logging within the next five years unless we present a viable alternative.”
If Rising Appalachia can’t purchase the land, “all of this property is at immediate risk of being clear-cut and developed for non-forest uses, including residential and commercial development,” the application says.
That application was to the U.S. Forest Service’s community forest grant program — which announced in August that Rising Appalachia would receive $600,000 to support its purchase of the coal mining land.
“Community forests strengthen rural communities — supporting jobs and timber production, expanding recreation, and reducing wildfire risk through local, active management,” Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said in a press release.
Rising Appalachia also secured funding from the Great Lakes Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program to support the project.
Rising Appalachia still has a long way to go. In order to actually get the Forest Service grant in the bank, Rising Appalachia must secure matching funding. It has grants in mind for that — but even if it secures the match, it will still need to raise another $800,000 to move the project forward by purchasing the first major parcel, comprising about 400 of the 900 acres.
“Right now, we’re scrambling to find additional sources of funding,” Lombard said.
If they can purchase the first part of the forest, Capstone Property Management would purchase the remainder to hold until Rising Appalachia is ready to buy the rest, according to Rising Appalachia’s grant application.
Rising Appalachia envisions various improvements to the land, including the development of trails and safety improvements to address an old tipple that stands in the forest.
The nonprofit hopes to incorporate the legacies of coal mining present on the land as educational opportunities.
“Rather than have these removed and erased from our local history, Rising Appalachia has developed a cultural history interpretive hike that tours the remnant mine features on its existing land,” its grant application states.
The community forest would also provide opportunities for Rising Appalachia to expand its workforce training program and increase its educational offerings to young people. It would also allow for sustainable timber production and the growing and harvesting of forest products.
Ultimately, however, the community would decide how the forest is put to use, however, as community forests are managed by people directly impacted by what happens on the forest land.
“This would be by and for the people who are directly impacted by what happens to the land, and hopefully serve as a model for creating what we see as a regenerative economic vision – so, finding ways to create economic development rooted in good stewardship of the land,” said Stanley.
Rising Appalachia has worked to engage the local community in the process of envisioning a future for the land through multiple community meetings.
The next of those meetings will take place 3:30–5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28 at Solid Ground Farm, 13262 Liars Corner Rd., Millfield.
