Regrowth.
That’s the message that Smith Woods Preserve shares with any visitor willing to wade through the brambles.
When this 20-acre forest was donated to Oak Heritage Conservancy, it needed a little R&R. One Spring, we gathered a group of die-hard OHC supporters, some professors and college students from Hanover College, and our shovels…and some beautiful oak saplings. Our plan was to plan these oaks into the existing forest, to help it regenerate.
Planting day arrived with grey skies and a strong chance of thunderstorms.
Everyone came out in their rain gear and planted anyway. We finished planting the young oak trees just as the thunderstorms were breaking loose. Our planting crew went home soaking wet and very happy.
Today, those oak trees are as big around as your forearm, and growing steadily. Someday, they will tower overhead like their relatives at neighoring Guthrie Woods Preserve.
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