The Monday of the annual WKMS Fall Fundraiser is traditionally called “Make a Difference Monday” – and this year, WKMS listeners did not disappoint. Thanks to a partnership with Green Forests Work – a nonprofit that reforests old mining land in Appalachia – listeners’ donations will lead to 1,283 trees being planted in eastern Kentucky next spring.
WKMS Station Manager Asia Burnett talked with Green Forests Work President and Founder, Chris Barton, and Director of Marketing and Communications, May May Barton, about their efforts and how Green Forests Work is striving to reshape the Appalachian landscape.
Chris said the initiative got started in the early 2000s. In the Appalachian region, lands that were forests were being mined for coal and then reclaimed as a non-forest land use. There are about a million acres of land in Appalachia that Chris said used to be forests – but are now grasslands and shrublands.
After nine years of research on how to get trees to grow on these old mine sites, the group started working with mining companies to change their reclamation practices. Even so, there was still all of the land that had previously been converted to grassland.
Green Forests Work began its work with a mission of restoring that existing grassland to forests – and the goal of providing jobs and funds to economically-depressed areas in Appalachia. “One of the things that we want to do is utilize local plants that have local genetics for where we plant,” Chris said.
Green Forests Work has a network of local nurseries and greenhouses throughout Appalachia that they try to buy from. They also hire local contractors and equipment operators to turn the compacted ground and make it more hospitable for the tree saplings.
This work costs a lot of money. Chris said that for every tree they plant – about $3 goes back to the Appalachian region. In Green Forests Work’s lifetime, that’s led to a nearly $24 million impact.
He said the nonprofit has planted almost eight million trees so far; in recent years, it’s been closer to one million trees per year. Some of the earliest forests the group planted are now moving towards maturity. That means canopy closure, the return of wildlife and changes to the hydrology of the system – so flood mitigation and improved water quality in some cases.
There’s a United Nations program called 1t.org, a platform that advocates for a global tree-planting effort to plant one trillion trees between 2021 and 2030 – what Chris refers to as “the decade of ecological restoration.” Green Forests Work would like to plant 10 million of those – and the nonprofit’s leaders say partnering with groups like WKMS helps meet that goal.
The organization has had help from more than 25,000 volunteers over the years – including many college students that come on spring break. This April, WKMS listeners’ trees will be planted in eastern Kentucky, and May May invites the WKMS community to come plant with them.
“It’s just amazing… when the sun’s coming up and you’re on the side of this mountain and you’ve got – I mean, it looks like a moonscape where the soil has been ripped and turned. But just the energy and the positive experience it is for people that come up and plant. It’s just a real community event,” May May said.
WKMS will have more on that tree planting date to come. More information about Green Forests Work can be found on the group’s website.
