Photo By Scott Sturkol | A Fort McCoy community member plants trees April 25, 2025, during a tree-planting...... read more read more
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Fort McCoy held a community event April 25 to plant 500 trees in a designated planting area to establish a forested area on the installation’s cantonment area. In doing so, the effort also earned the post its 36th Tree City USA designation.
Forester Charles Mentzel with the Forestry Office of the Directorate of Public Works (DPW) Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch unveiled the installation’s newest Tree City USA designation flag during the event, and participants in the effort also took a group photo.
The flag later found its home on a flagpole right next to Fort McCoy’s old Main Gate on the cantonment area near State Highway 21.
Tree planting is an annual effort at Fort McCoy where the Forestry Office coordinates what areas need planting, and where they will best improve lands which are also used as part of the post’s training and maneuver space.
“Fort McCoy has more than 46,000 acres of forested land managed by the Forestry Office, and it’s important to maintain those forested areas,” Mentzel said.
The 500 trees planted April 25 were the major replanting effort for 2025. In 2024, Forestry Technician Tim Parry, also with the Forestry Office, said the post planted 5,000 trees — 500 on the cantonment area and 4,500 in Training Area B-05 on Fort McCoy’s South Post.
Mentzel also noted that the Department of the Army is the steward of the land and the natural resources at Fort McCoy, which are being held in trust for the American people. Trees are one of the most important natural resources contained on Fort McCoy, either singularly, in groups, or forests. These trees benefit Fort McCoy by providing quality training, watershed protection, wood products, food and shelter for wildlife, outdoor recreation opportunities, clean air, noise buffers, and beautification.
Additionally, managing an active forestry program that manages timber sales and completes tree replenishment helps keep Fort McCoy’s training areas ready year-round.
“From a forestry perspective, our mission here, first and foremost, is to serve the Army and create training environments that better serve our Soldiers who support future missions in defense of this country,” Mentzel has said. “By thinning trees, the ones left will grow larger faster. This gives troops overhead cover and again allows for better maneuver space. … Harvesting along the fence lines for security (for example) saves the government money from having to remove the trees individually.”
And by planting trees, it also improves habitat for native wildlife as well as aids in forests being manageable for future timber sales and management. For example, in April alone, the Fort McCoy Forestry Office managed the tree planting as well as administering six timber sales on post taking in $23,583.20. Revenue from the timber sales goes into an Armywide forestry account and is returned to fund forestry projects on Fort McCoy.
As the year continues, Parry said the Forestry Office will continue to evaluate areas that might need tree planting in 2026 and in years after.
Learn more about how Fort McCoy’s forestry program helps improve training capabilities and helps create healthy forests by visiting https://www.dvidshub.net/news/493260/fort-mccoy-timber-harvest-improves-training-capabilities-environment-training.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.”
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 05.02.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.02.2025 17:55 |
| Story ID: | 496899 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 51 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Fort McCoy continues annual tree replenishment efforts; earns 36th Tree City USA award in process, by Scott Sturkol, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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