Gov. Sonny Perdue will be on the road Thursday to make three announcements related to land conservation and energy.

The land conservation announcement will be made at the state's newly acquired Silver Lake Wildlife Management Area near Lake Seminole in southwest Georgia's Decatur County.

The state announced last year it will buy 8,430 acres at Silver Lake in phases, starting with a $2.5 million purchase. The land, valued at about $38.6 million, was bought from International Paper by the Conservation Fund, a national land conservation group that is holding the land for the state.

The site is dominated by a mature longleaf pine forest that was used by IP for research purposes and includes a 300-acre lake. IP also worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce federally endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers to the ecosystem of longleaf pine trees and wiregrass.

Earlier this year, Rex Boner, director of the Conservation Fund's regional office in Georgia, said "It's the first time the state has owned habitat that has red-cockaded woodpeckers on it."

The property, in the crook of the elbow formed by Flint River and Spring Creek, is expected to open to the public for the first time on Aug. 1 for hunting, fishing, hiking and bird watching.