The trees were grown through the Southern Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative, a partnership between the reserve and various state, federal, nonprofit and university organizations. They were picked up by Sue Cameron, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who is an expert in the endangered species that depend on red spruce for survival, along with her team. The trees will provide new habitat for the endangered Carolina northern flying squirrel, the spruce-fir moss spider — which is the world’s smallest tarantula — and many others.

There is currently a shortage of spruce-fir forest in the Southern Appalachians, the result of heavy logging in the late 1800s and early 1900s accompanied by construction of railroads through the rugged terrain, as well as hot-burning wildfires, torrential rain, mid-century air pollution and damage from the balsam wooly adelgid.