Komatsu Plants 700,000 Trees on Former Mining Sites

When Komatsu employees showed up to plant trees in West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest this April, they weren't just celebrating Earth Day. They were completing a mission seven years in the making to heal land once damaged by mining.

The team planted more than 1,200 seedlings at the Mower Tract, bringing their total partnership with Green Forests Work to over 700,000 trees planted since 2019. That's nearly a million trees now growing where barren mining sites once stood.

This year's planting tackled a specific problem that was quietly devastating local wildlife. More than 100 retention ponds, originally built to capture mining sediment, had been warming the water that flowed into nearby streams. Without trees to provide shade, the heated runoff was killing trout populations downstream.

The solution was elegantly simple: plant trees to cool the water and restore balance to the ecosystem. But the scale of restoration required was anything but simple.

Since 2010, volunteers and partners have transformed approximately 1,500 acres at this single site. They've created more than 1,000 wetlands and prepared compacted mining soil using specialized techniques that break up hard layers, allowing water to penetrate and roots to grow.

Komatsu provided both funding and equipment for the heavy groundwork. Their dozers, excavators, and wheel loaders helped prepare soil that mining had compressed into something closer to concrete than earth.

"We went from doing an expected 70 to 80 acres a year to almost 200 acres in several of these years," said Christopher Barton, founder of Green Forests Work. The partnership with Komatsu made that leap possible.

The Ripple Effect

The impact extends far beyond counting trees. These restored forests filter water for downstream communities, provide habitat for wildlife, and transform eyesores into ecosystems. Former mining sites that contributed nothing to their surroundings now actively support life.

Local trout populations will recover as shade returns to their waterways. Birds, insects, and mammals will follow the trees back to land that couldn't support them before. The wetlands created will manage stormwater and recharge groundwater supplies.

Each seedling represents a small act of repair, but 700,000 of them add up to genuine healing. The forests taking root today will stand for generations, a living reminder that damaged land doesn't have to stay damaged.