A group of West Virginia University students will make a lasting impression on the Mountain State when they spend a weekend restoring some of West Virginia’s most beautiful landscapes.
Members of WVU ’s student chapter of the Society of American Foresters, Plant and Soil Science Club and Student Sierra Coalition will travel to the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge April 8-9 to participate in an ambitious tree planting project.
Students will be planting red spruce and balsam fir seedlings on the refuge Saturday, April 8, and at Dolly Sods Sunday, April 9.
The outing has been arranged by the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.
The Conservancy has been working for many years to protect and restore the red spruce ecosystem and conserve balsam fir in West Virginia ,said Dave Saville, a WVU graduate who works with the Conservancy.
Red spruce once covered over 500,000 acres of the highlands region and has been reduced in range to just over 50,000 acres,Saville explained.Balsam fir is a relic of the Ice Age that can still be found in isolated pockets of West Virginia .
The Highlands Conservancy has been collecting cones from these trees and having them commercially grown. The organization has partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the USDA Forest Service, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources and other groups and agencies to advance this project.
Saville, who earned a bachelor’s degree in resource management and a master’s degree in recreation, parks and tourism resources from the WVU Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences, turned to his alma mater to create this unique service-learning opportunity.
I think this will be an excellent opportunity for diverse student groups to cooperate, do some really valuable service work that benefits our public lands and wildlife, and have a great weekend in the West Virginia highlands,Saville said.
Students will be working with the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service , Forest Service and Division of Natural Resources staff during the two-day outing.
