This November, approximately 1,300 new trees will take root at St. Xavier Nature Preserve in partnership with Friendship Farms in Latrobe, thanks to support from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Watershed Forestry Program. The project continues a much larger restoration story at St. Xavier. Soon after Westmoreland Land Trust acquired the original property in 2022, one of the first major stewardship efforts focused on planting 2,300 trees on the property. Since then, staff and volunteers have continued caring for those young trees—maintaining tree shelters, controlling competing vegetation, and giving them the best opportunity to become established. The trees going into the ground across 6 acres this fall represent the next chapter in that long-term effort.
DCNR’s Community and Watershed Forestry Program supports the restoration of riparian forest buffers and the conversion of open areas to forest and meadow, helping organizations establish healthier landscapes around Pennsylvania’s waterways. At St. Xavier, with its open fields, wetlands, Monastery Run and its tributaries, that work fits directly into our vision for the 350-acre preserve. As the trees mature, they will help slow and absorb stormwater, protect water quality, expand and connect wildlife habitat, and gradually return portions of the property to native forest.
And the work has already begun. In September, community volunteers joined the Seton Hill University baseball team during the university’s annual Labor of Love service event to kick off this next phase of restoration through a community tree planting kickoff. That volunteer planting helped set the stage for the much larger effort coming in November. Planting 1,300 trees in a few days is exciting, but growing a forest takes years. Just as we have done with St. Xavier’s earlier plantings, WLT and our partners will continue caring for these young trees as they become established. We are grateful to DCNR, Friendship Farms, Seton Hill University, and the many volunteers helping us grow the next generation of forest at St. Xavier—one tree at a time.
