Ohio Approves Funding for 10,407 Acres of Hunting and Trapping Land

Archive note — published October 27, 2026 from an earlier prepared draft. The displayed date is the original source report date, not the date this page first went online.

Ohio has cleared a funding step toward a substantial addition to public hunting and trapping ground. In an October 2 report, the Sportsmen’s Alliance says the state Controlling Board approved a $25 million expenditure on September 28 to help acquire land in southern Ohio. The approval also enables access to federal matching funds, with the purchases expected to total 10,407 acres.

The planned acquisition includes 6,817 acres of new wildlife area land adjacent to Broken Arrow Wildlife Area and 3,590 acres for state forests near Brush Creek State Forest. The tracts were formerly owned by Mead Paper Company and are now identified as Scioto Land Company-BTG lands. The report says all of the land will be open to public hunting and trapping.

This is a funding approval, not a notice that every parcel is already in public ownership or ready to hunt. The report does not provide a closing date or an opening schedule. Hunters should wait for official property boundaries, access information and applicable area rules before planning a trip onto the acquired tracts.

For hunters without private ground, the lasting value is land they can return to under public management. Here, the next practical milestone is turning approved acquisition money into clearly marked, usable access.

Illustrative image: White-tailed deer; credit: Mishler, N. & M.J.. Public Domain, via the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (https://www.fws.gov/media/white-tailed-deer-buck). This is a species illustration, not a photograph of the reported location, project or event.