If you think the Whitewater Valley Land Trust is only about collecting land, think again.
To improve the land it owns or controls in southern Wayne and northern Union counties, the land trust is finishing up a mammoth tree-planting project.
Seedlings have been planted in both Wayne and Union counties, a project that is taking about two months to complete, said Michael Hoff, a land trust member.
The tree planting is done using a tractor and equipment which pushes the tree plug into the soil, Hoff said.
“We have a good variety of native hardwoods that are being planted,” Hoff said.
“We planted it all in forest,” land trust member Chuck Jewett added.
Workers began planting tiny tree sprouts in April, with about 110,000 seedlings to go into the ground.
The group thought the work would continue into June, but now is expecting to be finished this week, if the weather agrees, Hoff said.
Land trust property stretches from the Cope Environmental Center on Shoemaker Road along Lick Creek to where it empties into the Whitewater River south of Abington.
The Whitewater Valley Land Trust was organized 17 years ago and has been acquiring fragile land that the group says should be protected from erosion and development.