Volunteers with the LandTrust for Central North Carolina planted 5,000 hardwood trees in a former farmfield on its Two Rivers property in Davie County on Friday and Saturday.

The 153 volunteers came from near and far to join the effort to establish a bottomland hardwood forest that will provide a buffer to enhance water quality just north of the water intake for the city of Salisbury.

Corporate volunteers from Michelin, Wells Fargo and Mountain Khaki participated, as well as students from Salisbury Academy, a LandTrust Leopold Society School, and Catawba College. Boy Scout troops 10 and 178 of Cabarrus County also helped plant the trees on Saturday.

A number of LandTrust Sportsman members volunteered as well.

“The LandTrust is grateful to all our supporters who came out to help with this effort,” said Cody Fulk, the organization’s stewardship director. “We truly could not have completed this momentous achievement without the help of dedicated volunteers. This forest will create important wildlife habitat as well as enhance the water quality of this area.”

The volunteers planted black walnut, overcup oak, Piedmont willow oak, Piedmont white oak and southern crabapple trees. They will be maintained by mowing in between the rows to prevent competition from other plants until the trees are established.

The planting was supported by a grant from the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund. The fund, Fred and Alice Stanback, and the city of Salisbury provided money for acquisition of the property by LandTrust in 2012.

The trust fund contributed $2,500 toward the hardwood restoration. Its primary focus for this project is in protecting and enhancing water quality of the Yadkin and South Yadkin rivers and their tributaries.

To learn more about the project or future volunteer opportunities with LandTrust, email steely@landtrustcnc.org or call 704-647-0302.

The LandTrust for Central North Carolina works with private landowners and public agencies to conserve natural, scenic, agricultural and historic places in a 10-county region of the central Piedmont.  For more information, visit www.landtrustcnc.org.