Coverage of an Arbor Day event on Friday, April 15, on a former strip mine on the Wise – Dickenson County line.  We hear from some of the sponsors representing the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, the Virginia Department of Forestry, the Office of Surface Mining, and Alpha Natural Resources, as well as comments from sixth graders from local elementary schools who were enlisted to plant trees. Over 100 students attended the event which was aimed at demonstrating a new approach in strip mine land reclamation – that of planting native hardwoods in uncompressed soils.  Among the trees planted were twelve blight resistant Chestnuts, some of the very first of the 15/16 strand Chinese-American hybrids to be planted outside the nursery.
[wpdm_file id=101]