Pikeville partnership plants native nature

PIKEVILLE, Ky. (WYMT) – The City of Pikeville, the Pike County Conservation District and Pikeville High School partnered up Monday for an early Earth Day celebration.

A brand new deal with revitalizing the Bob Amos path space with native foliage, whereas addressing a few of the invasive species within the area, introduced forth a plan to plant.

“Old saying is, ‘The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago,’” stated Director of Outdoor Recreation P.J. Collins.

Students from Kelly Scott’s Biology and AP Biology courses gathered on a bit of the multi-use path close to the YMCA, increasing their in-class classes with some hands-on studying, planting timber with representatives from town.

“It is so nice to bring my biology students out to experience what we’ve been talking about in the classroom forever- for the last month at least,” she stated.

With a plan to plant round 60 timber, Collins stated the long-term aim of the venture is to assist the hills thrive with native nature and blight-resistant timber, whereas focusing on the invasive plants.

“It is definitely a task, but it’s a task that we’re working on and it’s going to be a multi-year project,” Collins stated. “So, hopefully we can get it under control up here and we’ll start seeing some more diversity of our native trees.”

Scott stated the scholars will be capable to see their influence on their group within the years to come back, which is an added lesson she has confused in school.

“We’ve been talking about how much we take away from the environment. And them having a chance to give back, to leave something for future generations, makes them so happy. And it’s so nice for them to be excited about that,” Scott stated.

The studying facet doesn’t cease with the scholars who planted the timber. Collins stated labels shall be added to the saplings and the group will get an opportunity to observe them develop. Other informative indicators are additionally being added to the path to clarify the non-invasive journey.

“I think it’ll be a pretty good little experiment for everybody to enjoy,” he stated.

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