Students at Lake City Middle School in the Coal Creek watershed and Norwood Middle School in Oliver Springs established indoor American chestnut nurseries in their classrooms in February.  Over the next few months, they will water and fertilize them, and then transplant their seedlings during the planting event scheduled for May 4^th. 

2012 FRA Planting Site

Mined land abandoned before 1977
with exposed highwalls

Students will see abandoned highwalls from mining performed prior to enactment of the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA), so they can contrast them with conditions at the planting site after re-mining and FRA reclamation.  Additional details about re-mining, and how FRA sites are part of the American Chestnut Foundation’s plan to introduce blight-resistant chestnuts into Appalachian forests, can be found at http://www.coalcreekaml.com/MineRecLesson3.htm. 

Welsh miners helped Oliver Springs and Coal Creek rebuild after the Civil War, as will be chronicled in the new book, The Welsh of Tennessee, by Dr. Eirug Davies of Harvard University.  Furthermore, miners from both areas were involved in the Coal Creek War to abolish the use of convict labor in Tennessee’s coal mines from 1891 to 1892.  A history lesson will be provided as part of the planting event.  

View from 2012 FRA Planting Site

See Mine Reclamation Lesson of 2011's site