RESTON, VA – The Hardwood Forestry Fund (HFF) and Armstrong World Industries Inc., a hardwood flooring company, have completed a major tree-planting project at Kentucky’s Tygarts State Forest. 

Starting on April 17, planting teams from the Kentucky Division of HFF began planting 35,000 hardwood trees, including white oak, Northern red oak, Southern read oak, black oak, black cherry and walnut, at Tygarts, expanding the forest’s woodland on former grazing land acquired by the state in 2006.

The location was chosen because of its ability to expand woodlands and its educational outreach program for loggers, landowners and schoolchildren.

Barbara McClendon, administrator of the Hardwood Forestry Fund said, “Thanks to the support of Armstrong, we have the ability to revert agricultural land contiguous to Tygarts to forestland and expand wildlife habitat and healthy woodland. This planting creates more diversity of hardwood species and helps to ensure an abundance of native tree species.”

The Tygarts planting is the first of four reforestation projects of the Hardwood Forestry Fund and Armstrong that will plant more than 500,000 hardwood trees on U.S. public land in spring 2008. Other locations include Devil’s Lake State Park, Baraboo, WI; Salamonie River State Forest, Huntington and Wabash Counties, IN; and Kumbrabow State Forest, Huttonsville, WV.