DCNR, TreeVitalize assisting with tree plantings at Flight 93 Memorial

DCNR Secretary Richard Allan announced that DCNR and TreeVitalize is assisting with a large tree planting effort last weekend—and the one upcoming—at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County.

“In addition to their many environmental benefits, trees are a symbol of life and growth, so important at a site that requires reflection on the brave sacrifice made by the 40 passengers and crew of Flight 93,” Allan said.

DCNR is joining the National Park Service, many partner agencies and hundreds of volunteers on April 27-28 as they complete planting more than 13,800 seedlings at the site.

DCNR’s Bureau of Forestry is providing a total of 2,000 native white and pitch pine, and quaking aspen seedlings grown at the department’s Penn Nursery in Centre County.

In addition, 100 American red pine and 100 red maple seedlings donated by listeners last fall in a partnership between TreeVitalize and WITF public radio in Harrisburg are being planted. TreeVitalize is a DCNR partnership effort to plant one million trees across Pennsylvania to address the loss of tree cover. For more information, visit www.treevitalize.net.

Twenty DCNR foresters will ultimately be on site during the four days acting as team leaders and providing information on how to plant seedlings.

Construction is ongoing at the Flight 93 National Memorial, which marks the spot where the plane went down in a field near Shanksville after the crew and passengers thwarted a plan by terrorists to crash in to the U.S. Capitol. The memorial’s first features were dedicated last September to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks.

Visit the Bureau of Forestry online.