Simon Woods
a new 670-acre preserve in Scioto County
Total Project Cost: $2,006,983
Balance Yet to Raise: $131,978
Stewardship Funds Critically Needed
Simon Woods Preserve includes extremely steep forested hill country and 60 acres of mowed meadows and agricultural fields that were John Simon’s working farm.
The preserve is heavily dominated by white oaks on the extremely steep slopes and chestnut oaks on the ridge tops. Approximately 320 acres, roughly two-thirds of the forest, are fully mature woodlands, a legacy of both John’s parents and his determination over the years to protect this forest. The oldest of the trees range between 80-150 years, growing slowly on the steep, thin-soiled and rocky hillsides with majestic height. Simon Woods is also rich in high-quality water resources, with three headwater streams flowing from the ridge tops into Pond Creek. As Pond Creek exits Simon Farm, it winds eastward, eventually flowing through Tremper Mound before joining the Scioto River.
Today, John’s homestead is the hub for the annual Simon Sorghum Festival - a beloved local event founded and hosted by John for 37 years. John ceased holding the event in 2018, and the Arc has now successfully resurrected the Festival with the help of passionate neighbors and friends..
SEE MORE INFO BELOW PHOTO GALLERY.
Simon Woods - A new Arc Preserve
Less than a mile west, as the crow flies, from the sacred grounds of Tremper Mound lies the Arc of Appalachia’s new Simon Farm Preserve, named after John R. Simon, who previously owned this land and first envisioned the preserve. Here grows a forest so exemplary that its already-mature white oaks and chestnut oaks are well on their way to achieving old-growth status.
Simon Woods Natural History
The uplands of Simon Woods are heavily dominated by mature white oak and chestnut oak trees, making this one of the most beautiful forests in the Arc preserve system. At the time the Arc acquired the property, the timber appraisal estimated over two million dollars’ worth of standing sawlogs. An additional and unusual forest type on the preserve is known as 0ak-pine barrens, an ecosystem that occupies the highest and most exposed elevations of the preserve, following long, narrow, ridgetops carpeted with broken, lichen-covered rocks. The mini-climatic condition is punishingly hot and dry. Even in the springtime, these areas can be scorchingly hot at times. Plants found in these fragile communities include chestnut oak, scarlet oak, black oak, blackjack oak, pitch pine, downy serviceberry, greenbrier, and Vaccinium (blueberries and huckleberries).
Simon’s large and contiguous forest ecosystem provides important breeding grounds for the many neotropical breeding bird species that need woodland habitats. Simon’s forest is even more critical for warblers that require large and unfragmented woodlands. These obligatory deep-woods warblers are declining in population due to habitat loss, and thus, the added preservation of any wooded tract the size of Simon Farm helps sustain their populations. Key deep-woods warbler species breeding on the property include Kentucky warbler, worm-eating warbler, and hooded warbler.
Simon Woods Cultural History
The influx of settlers into Ohio in the early 19th century - families looking to utilize the forest bottoms for agriculture - was rapidly followed by profitable timber companies that were reinventing themselves with mechanical technologies and efficient railroad export. After Ohio became a state in 1803, the rich natural resources of the Ohio Territory were turned into market commodities more quickly than any other state in our fledgling nation’s history. Just 100 years after statehood, Ohio’s forest cover had dropped from 95% to 10%, with devastating consequences for the wildlife and waterways. When the Dust Bowl hit the West in 1930, conservation-minded individuals nationwide rallied Americans to steward their farmlands and forests more sustainably.
When John was born in 1936, America’s forest conservation movement was already well underway. John was three years old when Shawnee State Forest was founded (today our largest state forest) - its boundaries abutting right up to those of his father’s farm. John would have witnessed how much of the topsoil had already washed off the hills, and he would have watched the state forest’s young trees and thin soils beneath them begin to recover.
Given John’s sharp intelligence, he would have known that healthy intact forests were bonded to the fabric of Appalachian life and that forests needed to be protected as a historic Appalachian legacy. He believed in this principle so whole-heartedly that when 100 acres of forest came up for sale directly across the farm, he bought it for the simple reason that he did not want to see a hill stripped of its forest anywhere within sight of his home.
In 2022, after much deliberation with trusted family members and friends, John sold his beloved woods to the Arc. He then donated to the Arc (separately from the purchase), the historically-intact 6.4-acre 1864 rural homestead that had been occupied by four generations of his French ancestors. John Roger Simon made this gift of his homestead with retained life estate, and furthermore set up an endowment fund to help maintain it.
Expanding Simon Woods with Noel Hollow
As the Arc of Appalachia’s acquisition of Simon Farm took shape, John’s neighbor to the north, Brandon Hull, keenly observed the slow-paced process with interest and approval. Brandon, his wife Jeanna, and their young family live at the head of Noel Creek in the heart of Noel Hollow, adjoining Simon Woods on its northern border. Brandon and Jeanna generously offered to sell 95 acres of their forested hollow as an addition to the Simon Farm Preserve, bringing its total size to 670 acres.