COLUMBUS, Ohio — One forest in Ohio is growing.

What You Need To Know

  • Pike State Forest will acquire 1,275 acres

  • The acquisition is because of a $2.8 million investment by the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service

  • Each week, Chuck Ringwalt and Andy Vance break down a topic of interest within the agriculture industry

"One of the things that I love about USDA is it was once referred to as the 'People's Department,' because it's one department of government that really touches everyone through food nutrition programs, but also a good deal of work in protecting our natural resources, trees being a large part of that," Spectrum News agriculture expert Andy Vance said.

Two-point-eight million dollars will be used to acquire 1,275 acres of forestlands at Pike State Forest. The money is a part of a larger $188 million dispersed throughout the United States.

According to the USDA, the funding for Pike State Forest will expand multi-use recreation areas that provide public hunting, bridle trails, and all-purpose vehicle trails.

"It's called the Forest Legacy Project, and the object of the project is to preserve some of our most important forests across the country," Vance said. "We're taking an already good chunk of forest ground that is being protected by the State and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and [are] able to expand that by 10 percent. Yeah, I'd say that's significant. And then you multiply that by those projects all across the country, you know, if you're seeing a 10 percent increase in the size of protected forest ground, you know, in 30 or 40 states, that's significant."

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