HARRISBURG – Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn today announced that DCNR will be assisting with a large tree planting effort on April 22-23 at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County.
“In addition to their many environmental benefits, trees are a symbol of life and growth, which is so important at a site that requires reflection on the brave sacrifice made by the 40 passengers and crew of Flight 93,” Dunn said.
Dunn and DCNR staff will join the National Park Service, many partner agencies and hundreds of volunteers to complete the reforestation project that will soon result in 150,000 native trees planted at Flight 93 National Memorial.
This conservation project is part of the memorial’s original design and reclaims the former surface mine with native trees to re-establish wildlife habitats, create essential windbreaks and complete the healing of the memorial landscape.
DCNR’s Bureau of Forestry is donating 5,400 seedlings grown at the department’s Myra Lloyd Dock Resource Center and nursery in Centre County.
DCNR foresters will be on site during the two days acting as team leaders and providing information on how to plant seedlings.
The Flight 93 National Memorial marks the spot where the plane went down in a field near Shanksville after the crew and passengers thwarted a plan by terrorists to crash in to the U.S. Capitol.
Since 2012 the DCNR Bureau of Forestry’s nursery has supplied thousands of seedlings to help reforest the strip-mined land surrounding the crash site, and DCNR foresters have led volunteers in planting the seedlings each spring.
