Ohio family restores 60 acres of abandoned mine land with native trees

Representative imageIn a small rural corner of Jackson County, Ohio, where the hills still bear the scars of coal mining, one family chose to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary this year not with fireworks or parades, but with shovels, seedlings and a promise to heal the land. Their 60-acre property, a former Abandoned Mine Land (AML) site for more than two decades, had long been a visible reminder of the region’s industrial past. Now, it is becoming part of a new story; one of forests, wildlife and growth, according to U.S. Department of the Interior- Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.A vision born during the pandemicThe landowners first contacted foresters from the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative (ARRI) in 2021, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was