KNBN NewsCenter1
April 21, 2021
CUSTER, S.D. Black Hills National Forest Service crews will be out for two-and-a-half weeks to plant more than 153,000 ponderosa pine seedlings over 400 acres in the old Jasper Fire area of the Hell Canyon Ranger District.
In 2000, the Jasper Fire burned more than 83,500 acres in the Southern Hills, leaving thousands of acres without a seed source for mature trees – meaning without aid, regrowth was impossible.
Working with the Bessey Nursery in Nebraska, forest crews began growing a pine stock to be replanted in the fire scar, and have been successful in the replanting process since in began in 2002.