NASA once reported that satellite photos could detect two man-made objects from space. One was the Great Wall of China and the other was the scars from mining and processing in the Copper Basin in Polk County, TN. Since the 1970s, reclamation efforts have been underway by many stakeholders to restore the Basin. The latest evolution has been the incorporation of the Forestry Reclamation Approach as has been successfully demonstrated in coal-mine reclamation.

 

The Coal Creek Watershed Foundation was asked to organize the planting of blight-resistant American chestnut hybrids at two of those FRA sites. Yesterday, Barry Thacker and I were joined by our friend Dave Turner from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation in a presentation to Ginger Montgomery’s ecology class at Copper Basin High School in preparation for an Arbor Day planting event scheduled for April. We also visited the planting sites with our tour guide Nathan Haynes of Copperhill Industries.

 

Our engineering office of Schnabel Engineering has been a subcontractor to Barge Waggoner Sumner and Cannon on the Copperhill Superfund Alternative Approach portion of the restoration work for nearly 20 years, so we are thrilled to now be involved with the introduction of blight-resistant American chestnut hybrids, which Dave Turner predicts will be “a legacy gift with great returns for the Copper Basin.”