MWCD focused on land preservation, adding 625 acres in Coshocton
COSHOCTON − The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District is seeking an approximate $2 million grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission to purchase 625 acres of land in the area north of Wills Creek.
Coshocton County Commissioners recently approved a resolution of support for the MWCD to seek the grant via the Clean Ohio Green Space Conservation Program to acquire what will be known as the Turkey Creek Preserve from American Electric Power. The area is reclaimed coal mining land bordered by County Road 7 and 123 and Township Roads 123 and 137.
Brad Janssen of the MWCD said they are looking to close gaps for other recreation land they have in the area to create a contiguous preserve from Ohio 541 to Wills Creek in Linton Township. MWCD controls about 6,000 acres of connected protected and publicly accessible land. South of Wills Creek they are connecting to the Simco Wildlife Area and the organization also wants to move more west toward AEP recreation lands that features a lot of horse trails.
In the future, Janssen said they want to do more overview master planning for all their properties and trail networks, allowing for better access into properties. There's also a few smaller gaps they want to fill, around 200 acres each, in the vicinity.
"We would plan to manage it just like our other lands. We'll mark outer boundaries for hunters and make sure they're not going onto private property. We'll manage it for wildlife," Janssen said. "We'll have the ability to install trails. Not paved trails, they'll be more natural surface trails. And, we'll also have the ability to do so some primitive camping."
The area can be used for hunting, fishing and hiking. They also want to safeguard critical habitat for a variety of local wildlife. Janssen said some timber harvesting might be done of older trees, allowing for new forest to grow which is a good habitat for deer and other small woodland creatures. MWCD manages about 30,000 acres of forest.
"Previously, when these grants were applied for and awarded, they were purely preservation. (OPWC) allowed very minimal evasive work, forest management. Since we want to manage these lands for wildlife and public hunting and public recreation, we thought that was important," Janssen said of being able to do forest management. "It's heavily forested. Luckily, when AEP reclaimed a lot of these lands, they planted a lot of trees. The forest is pretty good from an inventory standpoint."
Becoming conservation land would take the 625 acres out of the tax base. Janssen didn't have exact numbers, but guessed it generated about $15,000 annually. Commissioner Dane Shryock said the tradeoff was certainly worth it for the community and environment.
"The importance of having opportunities for the future more than offset that," Shryock said of the loss of tax money. "For a small county like ours to have 6,000 acres, plus what we have with the division of wildlife on the western end of the county, creates a lot of opportunities, like tourism."
Leonard Hayhurst is a community content coordinator and general news reporter for the Coshocton Tribune with more than 15 years of local journalism experience and multiple awards from the Ohio Associated Press. He can be reached at 740-295-3417 or llhayhur@coshoctontribune.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @llhayhurst.
This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: MWCD seeks $2 million grant for 625 acre land purchase
