From our media partners at WOOD TV:
YANKEE SPRINGS TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Bob Ross and his “happy little trees” are popping up in state parks across Michigan.
Signs bearing the face of the late public television painter and his catchphrase are part of a newly renamed replanting program that helps parks especially hit hard by invasive species.
At the Yankee Springs Recreation Area, entire groves of ash and oak trees have been wiped out by emerald ash borers and oak wilt. Statewide, millions of trees have been lost.
“It’s sad,” Yankee Springs Park Ranger Brad Bedford said. “I’m a nature lover, so I don’t cut down trees unless I absolutely have to, unless they are dangerous and a threat to our guests.”
Infected trees lose their leaves, become brittle and eventually topple over, infecting more trees in the process.
“Once a tree is infected, there’s not much we can do,” Bedford said. “We cut them down and try our best to replant the areas especially hit hard.”
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has a replanting program. It used to be named the Department of Corrections Horticultural Planting Program but is now the Happy Little Trees program, the new title coming from a partnership with Bob Ross Inc.
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