Catawba College students were among the 153 volunteers who assisted the Salisbury-based LandTrust for Central North Carolina in planting 5,000 hardwood trees in a former agricultural field on the Two Rivers property in Davie County February 16th and 17th.
The volunteers were involved in an effort to establish a bottomland hardwood forest that will provide a buffer to enhance water quality just north of the water intake for the City of Salisbury. Trees planted included black walnut, overcup oak, Piedmont willow oak, Piedmont white oak, and southern crabapple. These trees will be maintained by mowing in between the rows to prevent competition from other plants until the trees are grown enough to be established.
The planting was supported by a grant from the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund (CWMTF). CWMTF, Fred and Alice Stanback, and the City of Salisbury provided funds for the acquisition of the property by The LandTrust back in 2012. CWMTF has small grant funding for properties protected through their program for management tasks including tree plantings. They contributed $2500 towards this hardwood restoration. Their primary focus for this project is in protecting and enhancing water quality of the Yadkin and South Yadkin Rivers and their tributaries.
Catawba College faculty, Dr. Jay Bolin, associate professor and chair of the Biology Department, and Dr. Tyler Davis, a visiting assistant professor in the Environment & Sustainability Department, accompanied Catawba students and assisted in the planting.
Bolin said of the opportunity, “It was a wonderful bottomland tree planting workshop, Catawba College has a strong collaboration with the LandTrust for Central N.C. to give our Biology and Environmental students experiential learning opportunities.”
Participating Catawba students from Bolin’s Biology 1502 Structure and Function of Organism class who were on the planting site on Friday, Feb. 16th included Ashley Bornkamp of Mooresville; Jacob Daugherty of Ft. Myers, Fla.; Joseph Dress of Moncks Corner, S.C.; Brooke Freeman of Mooresville; Darius Giles of Lithonia, Ga.; Madison Hallman of Thomasville; Katelyn Jones of Apex; Michaela Patterson of Salisbury; Madysen Peck of Indian Trail; Yeimi Reyna Romero of Concord; Gio Quiroz Delfi of Altamonte Springs, Fla.; and Macayla Upright of Salisbury. Several members of Catawba’s Tri-Beta, Biology Honor Society, Karina Noyolo-Alonso of Winston-Salem, Viridiana Mandujano of Candler, and Hannah Przelomski of Rocky Mount, were on the site Saturday, Feb. 17th to aid in the effort.
“It feels good to be out here making a difference on a stunning winter day,” noted Macayla Upright.
At the lunch break on Feb. 16th, Catawba students made “the bloody bramble walk,” Bolin shared, to the confluence of the Yadkin and South Yadkin Rivers, the actual point of land that gives the LandTrust property its name. Student Joseph Dress remarked, “It’s amazing that such a wild and beautiful place is just a few minutes from campus.”
Other volunteers included students from Salisbury Academy, a LandTrust Leopold Society School, Boy Scout Troops 10 and 178 from Cabarrus County, LandTrust Sportsman members, and corporate volunteers from Michelin, Wells Fargo and Mountain Khaki.
“The LandTrust is grateful to all our supporters who came out to help with this effort,” stated Stewardship Director, Cody Fulk. “We truly could not have completed this momentous achievement without the help of dedicated volunteers. This forest will create important wildlife habitat as well as enhance the water quality of this area.”
To learn more about this project or other future opportunities to get involved with The LandTrust for Central NC, contact Steely at steely@landtrustcnc.org or (704) 647-0302.
