Some of the team of more than 100 West Carroll, Ill., FFA members at the restoration site. - Photo by Bill Scott (President-Palisades Chapter of Friends of Upper Miss River Refuge).

Members of West Carroll FFA plant trees on 15 acres of retired crop fields. - USFWS Photo by Russell Engelke

The West Carroll Chapter of FFA recently completed planting over 700 trees, comprised of seven mast-producing species, on a retired crop field of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge - Savanna District. 

Roughly 100 Chapter members and students from West Carroll High School planted the trees on 15 acres adjacent Spring Lake in Carroll County, Illinois.  The trees were donated to the Refuge by Living Lands and Waters, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the Mississippi River.