By Brandt Mannchen

It was an overcast, rainy, windy, cool, day.  A welcome respite from the 84 degrees in almost the middle of December weather that I had been laboring under in this climate change new atmosphere.  My buddy, David, had to cancel at the last moment due to a death in his family.  God bless David and the Boyd’s in Pennsylvania.

But I wanted to get out and see the Big Thicket after the long, covid, battle and plant some Longleaf Pine trees in the soil for the future and posterity.  So I went!

The planting site was the Big Sandy Creek Unit of Big Thicket National Preserve (BTNP).  The site, as it turned out, I had been to several times previously.  When I turned into the parking area a friendly park ranger was present and we chatted briefly about how nice the weather was and how good it was to get outdoors.

I parked the car, an almost new Honda hybrid that I bought in August, and felt good.  The rain had wet things down but not so much so the ground was mucky.  I walked the ¼ mile to the planting site and on the way found my long-time friend Adrian talking to the Superintendent of BTNP.  I said “hello” and walked to the gathering area.

It was nice to see Ellen, Mary, Luis, and others who were here to enjoy the delight of planting for the future.  Longleaf Pine used to grow over a significant part of the Big Thicket.  They had been logged out and the National Park Service (NPS) was now each year planting more in suitable soils and sites to bring back this important member of the East Texas forest.

Usually, I worked with David and thought this year I would be on my own.  However, Adrian came over and we decided as senior members of the group (he’s almost 80 and I am almost 70) that we would partner and plant together.

We grabbed an orange or yellow vest to show we were not deer (it’s hunting season), a dibble bar (which punches holes in the ground where the Longleaf Pine seedlings are planted), and a sack of 50 or 60 seedlings and went to work.

We worked toward the front of the area, many times in places others had missed or had not planted in due to downed trees.  Instead of planting seedlings 6 feet apart, like we had done in the past, the NPS had told us to plant seedlings 10 to 12 feet apart.  Adrian told me this was due to the good survival rate (about 80%) that past plantings had.

Periodically, we took a rest and either drank water and chatted or went back for another bag of seedlings.  About 11:30 am we stopped for lunch.  After lunch we planted a few more bags and then called it quits right when the NPS announced that all the Longleaf Pine seedlings had been planted for the day.

We had worked methodically, sometimes I made the holes and Adrian planted and sometimes the reverse.  Over 3.5 hours we planted somewhere between 400 to 450 seedlings (8 bags).  I was surprised and very proud of our productivity.

It felt good to be back and to have given in service to the Earth that sustains us.  I want to come back next year to plant and check on how our Longleaf Pines are doing.  Long live Longleaf!!!