**Virginia's Arbor Day Celebration held on pilot carbon sequestration
project\
***DOI Deputy Secretary in Attendance*

![](media/image1.wmf){width="5.197916666666667in" height="4.0in"}Russell
County Mine Site, VA - April 4, 2008

Torrential rains failed to dampen the enthusiasm for Virginia's 4th
annual Arbor Day celebration on April 4, 2008. The Virginia Department
of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME), the Office of Surface Mining
(OSM), and the Virginia Department of

Forestry (DOF) hosted the event for secondary school students from
Dickenson County in Virginia. Other Arbor Day partners included The
Nature Conservancy, The American Chestnut Foundation, and Take Pride in
America.

DMME and its partners held the event at a previously mined site in
Russell County, Virginia where The Nature

Conservancy has accomplished a pilot carbon sequestration project.
Although the surface mining was post-SMCRA, the reclamation was typical
of many pre-SMCRA sites with highly compacted soils, competitive ground
cover, and numerous invasive shrubs.

The Conservancy had contracted to rework the site to make it compliant
with the forestry reclamation approach, under the Appalachian Regional
Reforestation Initiative. The work included shearing the existing woody
vegetation, liming and fertilizing, ripping, and planting native
hardwood species. The Conservancy's planting contractor excluded a
two-acre area specifically for the Arbor Day event.

The event highlighted efforts to restore the American chestnut to
eastern forests. Beginning in the early 1900s, a blight largely
decimated this species. By the 1950s, the blight reduced the once
dominant and ecologically critical nut producer to ghostly snags
throughout most of its range. With a mission to restore the American
chestnut tree to its native range, the American Chestnut Foundation has
implemented scientific research and breeding programs by crossing
American chestnuts with blight resistant Chinese chestnuts. Further
backcrossing the offspring with American parents produces offspring that
have the desirable characteristics of the American tree and the blight
resistance of the Chinese species. The Foundation has implemented
Operation Springboard to use surface mined lands as an avenue to
introduce a blight resistant American chestnut to the eastern forest.
This process can also be used on AML reclamation projects. During the
Arbor Day event, Lynn Scarlett, Deputy Secretary of the Interior,
recognized Marshal Case, president and CEO of the American Chestnut
Foundation, for his volunteer efforts to reestablish chestnut trees.
Deputy Secretary Scarlett also joined Case, OSM Director Brent
Wahlquist, and a number of students to plant five backcross American
chestnuts seedlings on the site. Scarlett noted the students were
planting for the future, which needs science, conservation and
partnerships to make things happen.

"The support and enthusiasm for Arbor Day is tremendous," said Butch
Lambert, director of Virginia's Division of Mined Land Reclamation. "In
addition to being a fun experience for the students, Arbor Day
activities also emphasize Virginia Standards

of Learning (SOLs). Arbor Day sponsors gave presentations that directly
related to secondary SOLs for biology and earth science."

DMME's AML program continues to implement the forestry reclamation
approach whenever practical on its projects. DMME's tree planting
contractor recently planted over 18,000 hardwood seedlings on AML
enhancement projects. DMME personnel also planted over 100 American
chestnut on AML sites this spring. For further information on Virginia's
Arbor Day event or reforestation efforts in Virginia, please contact
Richard Davis at 276-523-8216 or at <Richard.Davis@dmme.virginia.gov>.

**Richard Davis - VA Dept. of Mines, Minerals and Energy**

*Originally printed in National Association of Abandoned Mined Lands
Spring 2008 Newsletter.*