Keep on Planting

When I built a house in Canaan Valley in 1999 I wanted to plant native trees strategically around the property. Plenty of other residents in Timberline subdivision had planted trees on their lots: norwegian spruce, white pine, colorado spruce, you name it. But none of these grew historically in is area and elevation. I inquired at many nurseries only to find that no, red spruce simply aren't available. So, I ended up paying a guy to go get small red spruce and quaking aspen for me. The aspen came from a private land owner and the spruce came from a special pass the power company has in order to maintain power line swaths through the Monongehela National Forest. Surprise, I had about a 20% survival rate at best, and a particularly low survival rate on the reds.

Seven years later, my subdivision, which often discusses native plants and topics such as what landscaping will survive the deer, announced that we could buy boxes of seedlings via a partnership involving the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the Canaan Valley Wildlife Refuge. Quite a few Timberline residents took advantage of this. Many of us also volunteered to plug hundreds of them into the Wildlife Refuge. The seedlings have a much higher survival rate even though the start out only a foot tall.

This past Fall, the Friends of Blackwater and Davis Riverwalk got together to purchase several hundred more and volunteers planted them in the Town of Davis' Riverfront Park and along the Blackwater Falls State Park's Town Trail leading to Blackwater Falls. I also bought 100 more for Riverwalk and planted them in a nursery of my own on the slope in front of Hypno Coffee. In the 1880's as Davis was clearcut and its buildings constructed, the town became known as "stump town," for the size and number of red spruce stumps. Supposedly one could hop from stump to stump all the way across town.

Davis Riverwalk and the Riverfront Park will be one of the few areas of downtown Davis with enough green space to support small plantations of spruce. Some non-natives are located in the park today, but we are fortunate to now have a source of native spruce for its future.

Enjoy listening to this recorded broadcast from WV Public Radio!

Restoring forests in West Virginia's high country

By Emily Corio