Students Give Flint Creek Tree Farm a Spring Planting

Scott Carney (left) of Flint Creek Power Plant with Wendy Jackson, agriculture teacher at Gentry High School, at the power plant’s tree farm.

(Story by Peter Main)

The tree farm at Flint Creek Power Plant in Gentry, Ark., got a springtime burst of new growth when local high school students recently planted 1,000 trees into containers.

The trees are destined for transplant to riparian areas to stabilize stream banks, help retain nutrients and improve water quality. Flint Creek hosts the tree farm as part of the company’s support for the Illinois River Watershed Partnership. The watershed covers parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma. It includes Little Flint Creek and SWEPCO Lake, the plant’s cooling reservoir.

Scott Carney, Flint Creek Plant environmental coordinator, leads the tree farm effort and also serves on the IRWP board of directors.

Led by teacher Wendy Jackson, about 85 students from five agriculture classes at nearby Gentry High School helped renew the stock in the tree farm. They planted the seedlings and cuttings in tall, compact containers that are placed in metal racks built by Flint Creek employees.

Carney said the new containers take up less space and should grow better than larger round containers often seen at nurseries. The 1,000 seedlings fit in about the same space as 500 trees in the larger containers last year, which makes watering by the tree farm sprinkler system more effective.

Species planted April 15 included Chinkapin Oak, Persimmon, River Birch, Sycamore, PawPaw, Sandbar Willow cuttings, Smooth Sumac, Buttonbush , Roughleaf Dogwood, Witchhazel and Baldcypress.