Photo: Samantha Neely, The News Herald
“A group of agencies are working together to make the Panhandle a better place,
one tree at a time.
The Northwest Florida Water Management District celebrated the planting of the
20 millionth longleaf pine on district lands on Thursday.
The event at Wolf Pond North Recreational Area was joined by the Longleaf
Alliance, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the Arbor Day
Foundation, the Nature Conservancy and officials from state Rep. Allison Tant’s
delegation.
Their work of planting trees has gone back almost 30 years, with the district and
their partners planting 28 million trees in total since 1993. With its mission to
protect the district’s water, Northwest Florida Water Management District
Chairman George Roberts said he is proud of the milestone.
“Today was a good day for our 20th million longleaf pine,” Roberts said. “We do a
lot of reforestation projects throughout our district and also to help with our
water quality, as well as getting trees planted back to help with our water levels,
which was very high due to Hurricane Michael…”
— Samantha Neely, The News Herald
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