Source: Louisville Business First
Date: October 18, 2018
Carolyn Tribble Greer
Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest is now about 500 acres larger.
The privately held forest bought 494 acres from the Simon family, the former owners of Publishers Printing Co., for $1.4 million, according to a news release. The property is just south of Cedar Grove in Bullitt County, Ky.
Publishers Printing, a Bullitt County company that dated to 1866, was acquired last year by Chicago-based LSC Communications (NYSE: LKSD). Its longtime president, Nick Simon, died in 2016. The company ranked No. 11 on our 2017 list of the area’s largest private companies, with revenue of $185 million.
The purchase of the land — Bernheim’s third in as many years — brings the forest’s acreage to 16,137.
“Amidst the rapid pace of development, providing natural corridors where plant and wildlife habitat are protected is critical,” Mark Wourms, Bernheim’s executive director, said in the release. “We are grateful to the partnerships that helped make this purchase possible.”
Funding for the purchase came from the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund, a program of the state’s Energy and Environment Cabinet that provides funding for preserving and conserving natural areas. The funding was administered by the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves, the Imperiled Bat Conservation Fund, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Kentucky Natural Lands Trust.
Bernheim’s newly added 494-acre wildlife corridor includes forested knobs, open fields, and upper sections of Cedar Creek.
In addition to buying the property, Bernheim granted a conservation easement to the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund board that restricts development and subdivision of the land and requires the area to be managed as a habitat for imperiled species.
Public access to the land will be limited to nature-based education programs and researchers.
