A seven-day cycling tour that combines bike racing with forestry is coming to Ohio for the first time. The 581-mile Tour Des Trees starts Sunday in Columbus.
The event is organized by the Illinois-based nonprofit Tree Fund. CEO and president J. Eric Smith said the tour is about engaging the community in awareness of urban forests.
“Every day we have multiple stops. We do events. We go into schools," Smith said. "We do school programs. We do tree plantings, basically connect where we can with the community to get people thinking about the scientific side of the trees that we live with.”
The tour will begin in Columbus, make stops at Mohican State Park and the city of Kent before it loops through Cleveland and back to Columbus.
The Tour Des Trees will also raise money to fund research into healthy forests.
