INSTITUTE, W.Va. – Members of the West Virginia State University (WVSU) Extension Service along with other campus groups and volunteers from Diversified Energy Co. are planting 13 trees on campus this week in honor of Ericke S. Cage’s inauguration as the university’s 13
th president.
The campus tree plantings are part of a wider partnership effort announced last fall between the WVSU Extension Service and Diversified Energy Co. to plant 10,000 trees across West Virginia this year.
“Partnerships like this with Diversified Energy enable us to increase the ways we are able to serve communities throughout the state of West Virginia, and this program to plant 10,000 trees will ensure the beauty of those communities and our state for generations to come,” said President Cage. “I am honored that Diversified Energy volunteers are on campus this week to help plant 13 trees in honor of my inauguration.”
“We are thrilled to partner with West Virginia State University as part of our ongoing efforts to support the communities where we operate through charitable donations of time, resources, and funding,” commented Rusty Hutson, the Diversified Energy President and CEO. “Our partnership helps to foster more vibrant communities by increasing the number of trees to create beautiful green corridors, deliver cleaner air, enhance stormwater mitigation, and encourage biodiversity in ecosystems that will pay long-term dividends one tree at a time.”
The partnership to plant more than 10,000 trees around the state of West Virginia was announced last fall, and Diversified Energy made a donation of $125,000 to fund the new initiative.
The project is divided into three stages, and tree plantings for stage one began earlier this month when volunteers planted trees at Coopers Rock along a tract of land that was ravaged for a tornado in 2015. This past weekend, volunteers planted trees along the Morris Creek watershed as another phase of the stage one plantings. The last location for tree planting in stage one is the Marilla Streamback stabilization project and Outdoor Learning Park in the Deckers Creek Watershed.
Stage Two will engage Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapters from around the state in planting 5,000 trees. Each participating FFA chapter will determine the location for planting and number of trees to be planted at each location.
In Stage Three, trees will be planted for beautification or production for fruits or nuts in urban communities where the area is predominantly underserved. Trees will be placed in low socially economic areas throughout the state, working with individual homeowners, church groups, schools and other community organizations. Educational components will exist concerning tree production and care. WVSU’s Extension Service will reach out to and survey individual communities and gauge interest in the programming and offering of trees to determine locations.
The tree planting project will continue through fall 2023.
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About Diversified Energy Company PLC
Diversified Energy Company PLC is an independent energy company engaged in the production, marketing, transportation and retirement of primarily natural gas related to its US onshore upstream and midstream assets. For more information visit,
https://www.div.energy
West Virginia State University is a public, land-grant, historically black university, which has evolved into a fully accessible, racially integrated, and multi-generational institution, located in Institute, W.Va. As a “living laboratory of human relations,” the university is a community of students, staff, and faculty committed to academic growth, service, and preservation of the racial and cultural diversity of the institution. Its mission is to meet the higher education and economic development needs of the state and region through innovative teaching and applied research.