Haywood Community College students planting spruce trees (10344525523)

Afrikaans: Rooispar-saailinge word in die Blue Ridge-berge van Noord-Carolina hervestig. As deel van 'n poging om Rooispar (Picea rubens) in die suidelike Appalache-bergreeks te hervestig, het Noord-Carolina se Natuurlewe-hulpbronkommissie onlangs met 'n magdom vennote, insluitend die Amerikaanse Vis- en Natuurlewediens, Suidelike Hooglandreservaat, Haywood Community College en die U.S.D.A. Bosdiens saamgewerk om 1 150 Rooisparre langs die Cherohala Skyway van Noord-Carolina se Graham County te plant.
Die projek het ten doel om die habitat van die bedreigde Carolina-noordelike vlieënde eekhoring (Glaucomys sabrinus coloratus) te verbeter, wat naamlik spar-gryn/noordelike hardehoutwoude bewoon, en waarvoor die Rooispar as 'n belangrike bron van voedsel en skuiling dien. Bosdiens-navorsing dui daarop dat spar-gryn- en spar-noordelike hardehoutwoude eens baie meer uitgebreid was, maar wydverspreide houtkap in die vroeë 1900's, gevolg deur katastrofale veldbrande en beskadigde grond, het dit vir sparsaailinge moeilik gemaak om te ontkiem.

Langs die Cherohala Skyway was Oostelike hemlokke (Tsuga canadensis) die dominante immergroen boom, maar hul getalle het weens die Wollerige hemlok-adelgied (Adelges tsugae) gekwyn. Bioloë hoop die honderde aangeplante Rooisparre sal help om die gaping te vul wat deur die kwynende hemlokke gelaat word. Die bome is van saad gekweek deur die Suidelike Hooglandreservaat, 'n niewinsgewende plantarboretum vir inheemse plante; met die meeste geplant deur studente van Haywood Community College se natuurlewe- en bosbouprogramme.
English: As a part of an effort to restore red spruce in the Southern Appalachians, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission recently worked with a host of partners, including the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Southern Highlands Reserve, Haywood Community College, and the U.S.D.A. Forest Service to plant 1150 red spruce trees along the Cherohala Skyway in North Carolina’s Graham County.
The project is designed to improve habitat for the endangered Carolina northern flying squirrel, which lives in spruce-fir/northern hardwood forests, and for which red spruce is an important source of food and shelter. Forest Service research indicates that spruce-fir and spruce-northern hardwood forests were once far more abundant, but widespread logging in the early 1900s, followed by catastrophic wildfires, damaged soil, making it hard for spruce seedlings to germinate.
Along the Cherohala Skyway, Eastern hemlocks were the dominant evergreen tree, however their numbers are fading due to the hemlock woolly adelgid. Biologists hope the hundreds of planted red spruce will help fill the gap left by the fading hemlocks.

The trees were grown from seed by The Southern Highlands Reserve, a nonprofit native plant arboretum; with most of them planted by students from Haywood Community College’s wildlife and forestry programs.