
	Triangle Land Conservancy 1101 Haynes Street Suite 205 Raleigh, NC 27604 919.833.3662

20,000 New Trees Convert Fescue to Forest at La Grange

Acres of thick, over-grown brush were no match for TLC's stewardship specialist Doug Sprouse and his tree-planting team from Forestree Management on Mar. 3.

Workers spread out to plant tree seedlings across 33 acres.

After Sprouse called in a special chipper-shredder machine called a hydro-axe to clear the tangled fields, a 25-man crew was able to plant approximately 20,000 mixed hardwood saplings on 33 acres of TLC's La Grange property — and in just 8 hours!

"The planting was funded by a grant from the US Fish & Wildlife Service," Sprouse explains. This tree planting is the first implementation of a long-standing reforestation plan for certain areas of TLC's 308-acre La Grange Property along the Deep River.

A Win-Win Situation

The La Grange ecosystems and TLC will both benefit from the mixed hardwood forest that will grow and flourish in years to come. The forest will provide excellent wildlife habitat and return the landscape to its original state. At the same time, TLC will save money.

A hydro-axe clears unruly brush growth to prepare for tree planting. This machine chips and shreds brush right on-site, preparing the ground for planting by laying a natural level
of mulch as it goes.

"We've been paying someone for years to hay the fescue fields at La Grange," Sprouse says. "Now, we don't have to do that anymore. After a few years of maintenance to keep back brush and control competitor species, we'll have a mixed hardwood forest where a fescue field once existed."