Six million acres of old growth shortleaf pine woodland once covered the southern Missouri Ozarks. Historical logging and open range grazing reduced this coverage to fragments, leaving much of the landscape out of character and dominated by small diameter, often diseased red and black oak.
The Missouri Department of Conservation is in the process of reintroducing the native short leaf pine to their forest in the Ozarks.
Shur-Way Auto Body Inc purchased 300 native short leaf pines to plant in an area that was cleared for the construction of a lake. Shur-Way also purchased 125 Flowering Dogwood the native state tree.
On Saturday May 7th the employees of Shur-Way volunteered to plant the Short Leaf and Dogwoods. This project needed all 14 employees their spouses and friends to complete the planting in one very long hot day. After the completion of the planting, the Shur-Way employees that volunteer had such a wonderful feeling knowing they helped Missouri’s forest recover from years of destruction. Every one of the volunteers at the end of the day stood and stared at the new forest that they planted and exclaimed how they wanted to come back in the following year to see the growth of their work.
Shur-Way Auto body wants to thank every one of the employees and their families that came out to plant. We also would like to thank the friends of Shur-Way, Three Rivers Aikido and All State Glass for their hard work in helping with the planting.
Mike Swederska