Apple tree planting could spruce up mostly abandoned Centralia

A new chapter is being written for Centralia, the mostly abandoned Columbia County town with a coal-fueled fire burning beneath it.

The Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation is leading an environmental improvement effort in the town to develop wildlife habitat, offset some carbon footprint, reduce illegal dumping and lead to more ecosystem restoration.

The next step is a tree-planting project involving volunteers and 250 apple trees April 17 in the deserted areas of Centralia.

The project is funded by ISI and Mental Insight Foundation.

The coalition has also partnered with Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership, which will donate shelters for the trees as well as native trees for a fall planting during the next annual cleanup in October.

The organization also hopes the area, which already has several patches of wildflowers and attracts considerable butterfly populations, will become an official Monarch Butterfly Waystation.

The coalition plans to grow milkweed and other pollinator plants, and to work with local community programs to raise butterflies.

To register as a volunteer for the April 17 project or for more information on programs, initiatives, other upcoming events and how you can become involved, go to the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation website.

The one-time thriving coal town saw its history and legacy change dramatically in 1962 when a trash fire near an abandoned strip mine ignited what was left of the 25 million-ton coal seam beneath the town.

Eventually, the town became uninhabitable, with the population shrinking from more than 1,000 residents in 1980 to 63 by 1990.

Pennsylvania condemned the borough in 1992, and 10 years after that the Postal Service discontinued the town’s ZIP code.