We all love a good comeback story and West Virginia’s upland red spruce forest is making a comeback of its own with the help of Randolph and Upshur county 4-H students.
Local students recently helped the West Virginia Division of Forestry plant red spruce saplings at Kumbrabow State Forest as part of an annual program to restore the species to upland forests and woodlands.
“Historically, West Virginia’s high elevation forests consisted of about 1 million acres of red spruce and northern hardwoods,” said Josh Simons, a forester at Kumbrabow. “Sadly, only about 10 percent of that forest remains in the state today.”
Simons, who works out of Kumbrabow, wanted to do something about that.
“Kumbrabow is one of the areas that traditionally had red spruce, so we’re trying to return that tree’s footprint to the forest through programs like this,” he said.
Read more: