In conjunction with the National Park Service’s 100 Anniversary, Big Thicket National Preserve is creating a 300 acre ‘Centennial Forest’ area around an existing 120 year old stand of longleaf pine in 2016. The goal is to have volunteers help us plant 100,000 longleaf pine seedlings during a number of weekend events starting on the Martin Luther King Holiday on January 18, 2016. The restoration area is in the Big Sandy Creek Unit located near the small community of Dallardsville, Texas. We will then follow-up with 4 other Saturday planting events scattered over the next several weekends and ending on March 12, 2016. Additional planting dates will then be set up in November and December of 2016 to plant additional trees. Volunteers can sign-up by calling the Big Thicket Visitor Center at 409-951-6700. Groups can contact Ken Hyde at ken_hyde@nps.gov if they want to come and plant or help sponsor one of the planting events. Exact dates and times will be posted on our www.nps.gov/bith webpage and Facebook pages once we have finalized the sponsors and dates.

Longleaf pine once covered 90 million acres in the southeast U.S. and now only grow on about 3.5 million acres. Big Thicket has the largest amount of potential habitat, just over 21,000 acres, of all of the national park units in the U.S. Longleaf pine forests provide critical habitat for Texas trailing phlox plants, red-cockaded woodpeckers, Louisiana pine snakes, gopher tortoises, and a host of other sensitive species. The seedlings are grown in small containers and plant easily using a special tool called a ‘Dibble Bar’. Volunteers from 6 to 86 have already helped plant ten’s of thousands of these trees in the Big Thicket. This restoration effort will create a “Centennial Forest’ area that is readily accessible to the public and can be a source of pride as it develops into the next 100 year-old forest. Ranger-led tours of the adjoining old-aged stand of longleaf pine will be included after all planting events. The National Parks Conservation Association, Big Thicket Association, Sierra Club, area Master Naturalist clubs, Native Plant Societies, and others are all offering to help sponsor some of the weekend planting events.