BRISTOL, Va. – Christian Daniels jumped, landed both feet on top of the shovel’s blade and pushed down with all his 90 pounds.
The Van Pelt Elementary fifth-grader tumbled backwards, but bounced up unfazed and promptly began digging again.
He was one of about a dozen students who participated in an Earth Day tree planting ceremony Wednesday at the Douglass Senior Center. While many worked in groups of two or three, or relied on some adult assistance, Christian persisted until the hole was deep enough to hold the fragile seedling of a thornless honey locust.
“It’s really fun and it helps the environment too,” he said, never losing his focus on the digging. “We’ve been studying about that. When it grows up, a tree puts oxygen in the environment and will make a good habitat for birds and squirrels.”
After completing a second hole for another seedling, Christian ran to help some of his classmates.
“He’s helped me plant trees and dig holes for signs at Sugar Hollow,” teacher Ben Talley said while supervising the students.
Altogether, the students planted about 25 seedlings around the ball field adjacent to the former Douglass school.
Bristol Virginia Utilities organized Wednesday’s event and another one at Sugar Hollow Park.
During a news conference at the park, officials with the city-owned utilities provider announced a new partnership with Alpha Natural Resources to plant about 16,500 trees across the city and Washington County, Va.
“We’ve planted about 14,000 trees in the past six weeks,” said Kyle Hollifield, BVU vice president of marketing and business development. “Our goal is to plant one tree for every customer in our electric service area.”
The company hopes to plant a total of 16,500 trees.
The alliance also includes the Bristol Chamber of Commerce’s Keep Bristol Beautiful program, Keep Southwest Virginia Beautiful, the city’s parks and recreation department and the city of Bristol, Va.
More than 400 trees have been planted in Sugar Hollow Park, more than 150 were planted last week on the Virginia Intermont College campus and a number are destined for the Virginia Highlands Community College in Abingdon, said BVU’s Gail Childress.
“These trees will preserve the natural beauty of Southwest Virginia for future generations,” Childress said.
The partnership also sets an example for other corporate leaders, Hollifield said.
Alpha’s involvement is an extension of their existing efforts to plant trees as part of coal reclamation efforts, said John Jones, the firm’s director of environmental affairs.
“We plant about a half-million trees a year, all over our area we serve – Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania,” Jones said. “In recent years, we’ve gone to a program called forestry reclamation, where we restore areas no longer being mined to a forest condition – if that’s what the landowner wants.”
dmcgee@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2532
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