COLUMBUS — Ohio’s natural resources director says the state has struck a deal with American Electric Power that could lead to the state’s most significant public recreation expansion in recent memory.
Director James Zehringer tells The Associated Press that the Department of Natural Resources and AEP signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday opening negotiations on the deal.
Zehringer says the document expresses the state’s intent to purchase a major portion of a 60,000-acre parcel owned by AEP in eastern Ohio, known as ReCreation Land.
He says the land, where the utility surface-mined for coal, spans portions of Guernsey, Morgan, Muskingum and Noble counties and would be used for a wide range of outdoor recreational opportunities, including hunting and fishing.
Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich calls the opportunity to obtain and preserve such a large, open expanse rare.
Zehringer says the acquisitions would likely be made in separate parcels over a number of years and much work remains before the first purchase is negotiated and complete.