Simon Woods
a 670-acre preserve in Scioto County
Simon Woods Preserve is composed of extremely steep forested hill-country and 60 acres of mowed meadows and agricultural fields that earlier served as John Simon’s working farm. Today John’s homestead is the core hub for the Simon Sorghum Festival - a major event founded by John Simon. The event was terminated after it ran 37 years, but has recently been resurrected with the help of passionate neighbors and the Arc of Appalachia. Simon Woods Preserve is heavily dominated by white oaks on the extremely sleep slopes, and chestnut oaks on the ridge tops. Approximately 320 acres, roughly ⅔ of the forest, are fully mature woodlands, the result of John R. Simon’s determination to protect his forest throughout his life and the philosophy of his parents before him. The oldest of the trees range between 80-150 years old, growing slowly on the steep, thin-soiled and rocky hillsides and majestic in height. Simon Woods is also rich in high-quality water resources, with three headwater streams that drain off the ridgetops into Pond Creek. As Pond Creek exits Simon Farm, it winds eastward, eventually running through Tremper Mound before joining up with the Scioto River. SEE MORE INFO BELOW PHOTO GALLERY.
Stewardship: Additional fundraising is needed for the site’s long-term stewardship.
Photo: Mountain Laurel photo by Elijah Crabtree
Total Project Cost: $1,875,685
End0wment Funding for Stewardship Needed
Clean Ohio Supported
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 earlier 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 white oak and chestnut oak trees that are mature in age and are one of the most beautiful forests in the Arc Preserve System. At the time the Arc acquired the property, timber appraisal estimated over two million dollars worth of standing sawlogs. there is an additional and unusual forest type on the preserve known as Oak-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 is an important breeding ground 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 one hundred 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 more sustainably steward their farmlands and forests.
When John was born in 1936, America’s forest conservation movement was already in full swing. John was 3 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 the 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, as an adult, one hundred 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 made the decision to sell 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.