WVU Students Plant Red Spruce Seedlings on Refuge Ken Sturm; Canaan Valley NWR

To celebrate National Public Lands Day, the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge held a red spruce planting weekend to help begin the restoration process of the red spruce ecosystem.  Red spruce forests covered much of the Allegheny mountain ridges but were logged and burned around the turn of the century.  The result was the reduction of this unique northern forest ecosystem by more than 90% of it's historic range.  These spruce forests allow more typically northern wildlife species to persist in the southern Appalachian's including migratory birds such as the blackburnian warbler and northern saw-whet owl.  This habitat also provides refuge for the threatened Cheat Mountain salamander and endangered West Virginia northern flying squirrel. 

A total of 56 volunteers aided refuge biologists in planting 2,000 native red spruce trees along the Blackwater River over the weekend.  Volunteers included students from West Virginia University and Davis & Elkins College as well as the Refuge Friends Group and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.  The weather was perfect and all trees were planted in a 13 acre riparian corridor.  Volunteers logged over 330 hours to complete the project!