LISBON - The Little Beaver Creek Land Foundation and the Columbiana County Parks District will begin the second stage of a project to reforest a Madison Township strip mine April 18, when volunteers are scheduled to plant more than a 1,000 trees in the barren soil.

The former strip mine, which hasn't been active for about 40 years, is located about one mile west of state Route 11 on East Liverpool Road. It sits on a 460-acre piece of land that was recently purchased by the parks district and declared a public park.

Ben Shapiro, of the Little Beaver Creek Land Foundation, said soil was loosed at

the former strip mine site with a tractor and a four-foot ripping bar provided by Oxford Mining Company. He said a variety of hardwood trees will be planted, including red oaks, burr oaks, dogwoods and black locusts.

Shapiro said he expects about a hundred volunteers to help with the planting event, including groups from Huntington Insurance Salem Branch, Helping Hands 4-H, United Bretheran Church in Christ of East Liverpool, AmeriCorps, and Safety Home, Inc. and more volunteers are always welcome. Those looking to help out should come equipped with water bottles, good boots, hats and gloves.

Shapiro said besides improving the ecology in the area, the reforestation project will also offer the opportunity to better understand how carbon is stored in plants and soil.

He said Dr. David Ussiri from Ohio State University will be at the site to study the amount of atmospheric carbon, which will be taken from the air and stored in the soil as the trees grow and create soil.

Shapiro said that's important because it will help people learn how to most efficiently acquire carbon credits, making reforestation on abandoned mine lands more profitable.

Ussiri used grant money from his research to pay the 15,000 ripping fee from Oxford Mining and has been a big help in the project, Shapiro said.

"Something exciting is the number of other groups doing reforestation projects," Shaprio said. "The Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative (AARI) is helping facilitate reforestation initiatives in Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania."

Shapiro encouraged any group interested in a similar project to contact the AARI for advice and help.

For more information on the project, contact Shapiro at 330-420-9507.

Matthew White may be contacted at mwhite@salemnews.net.