News Release

Presidents' Day Volunteer Tree Planting Event

A volunteer planting trees in a future longleaf pine forest

NPS Photo / Scott Sharaga

News Release Date: February 1, 2021

Contact: Megan Urban, 409-951-6721

KOUNTZE, Texas – Big Thicket National Preserve is looking for volunteers on Presidents' Day, Monday, February 15th, for a second longleaf pine tree planting event. During a normal Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service event, volunteers will plant 16,000 trees, and this year volunteers planted nearly 5,000 trees. Resource managers are hoping volunteers will be able to plant 8,000 longleaf pine trees on Presidents' Day.

Due to current COVID-19 conditions, Big Thicket has modified the event to allow for volunteers to participate in a safe manner. The following measures will be in place to keep everyone safe: 

• Volunteers will have to pre-register for the event and sign up for an arrival time, but will be encouraged to stay until the end of the event at 1:00 pm. 
• No more than 10 volunteers will be allowed to sign up for each time slot which will allow for smaller groups of volunteers to remain at a safe distance while planting. 
• During planting, volunteers will be planting in spaced out areas and will be collecting planting materials from multiple locations throughout the planting area. 
• Tools used during the planting event will not be shared between volunteers and once a tool is returned, preserve staff will sanitize the tools before use by another volunteer.  
• Water coolers will not be provided to refill water bottles, but water will be available for volunteers at locations throughout the planting area.

“We had such a success for our Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service event that we felt comfortable proceeding with another volunteer event, to get the rest of the trees planted,” states Superintendent Wayne Prokopetz.

To sign up for the event, call the Big Thicket Visitor Center at 409-951-6700 between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm seven days a week. Once registered, volunteers will receive the location of the event and volunteer paperwork to be filled out before their arrival.

Big Thicket National Preserve is located in southeast Texas, near the city of Beaumont and 75 miles northeast of Houston. The preserve consists of nine land units and six water corridors encompassing more than 113,000 acres. The Big Thicket, often referred to as a “biological crossroads,” is a transition zone between four distinct vegetation types – the moist eastern hardwood forest, the southwestern desert, the southeastern swamp, and the central prairies. Species from all of these different vegetation types come together in the thicket, exhibiting a variety of vegetation and wildlife that has received global interest.

-NPS-