Mollicy Tree Planting

he elements and planted seedlings along Mollicy Bayou at the Upper Oua- chita National Wildlife Refuge on February 1st.

The Mollicy Unit of the Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge is a 16,000 acre tract of land which is the site of the largest floodplain restoration project in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley where the Nature Conservancy’s symbolic one mil- lionth tree was planted on Saturday, February 1. The Mollicy tract of land was originally clear cut for farming and surrounded by a 30 foot levee in the 1960s. The Nature Conservancy and US Fish and Wildlife Service acquired the land to restore the natural interior plumbing of the floodplain in order to alleviate flooding down- stream, improve water and air quality and restore valuable fish and wildlife habitat. With a master plan to restore the bottomland hardwood forests that were destroyed to make way for farming, a group of 70+ volunteers, along with The Nature Conservancy and US Fish and Wildlife Service, gathered to plant over 3,000 hard- woods grown for the project by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry’s Monroe District Office. A group of ladies from Monroe Garden Study League were out in force to plant seedlings on the overcast day that couldn’t dampen spirits of those planting trees.