Reclaiming the land through forest management

By Matt Reese

Rob Davis enjoyed bird hunting, so in 1995 he bought 128 acres in Harrison County deemed nearly worthless and unusable after it had been decimated by strip-mining in the early 1970s. The pastures and trees on the property were struggling in the depleted, compacted, high pH soil.

“It was primarily all stripped ground I was able to add on another 58 acres pretty quickly from the mine,” he said.

The property started with a driveway and an outhouse. Rob and his wife, Pat, lived in a camper while building a house and started to improve the property.

“In ‘96 we planted the first 500 trees. A few of them survived, but not many, and the ones that did survive found bedrock underneath. There are Austrian pines that are maybe 10 foot tall at the best,” Davis said. “Where it was forested was cottonwoods, sycamores and a few Norway spruce and some sweet gum — stuff that the mine had put out.… Continue reading