A time for planting: BYU students team up with US Forest Service to reforest Mapleton Canyon
The U.S. Forest Service needed to replant woody shrubs to reforest an area in Mapleton Canyon, but didn’t have the manpower to do it.
So a group of Brigham Young University students stepped up to help get the job done.
Members of professor Jane Day’s “Make a Difference” class at the BYU Marriott School of Business took on the project, rallying over 150 people to plant nearly 1,000 wood shrubs in the canyon last Saturday.
College kids, youth groups and families all recruited by the students took part in the project, getting the shrubs dug before the weekend rain and snow came to give them critical nourishment.
Trevor Bringhurst, the volunteer coordinator at the U.S. Forest Service Spanish Fork Ranger District, said their efforts will revitalize an area that was recently impacted when Mapleton City removed shrubs to place new water pipes.
The new vegetation will offer erosion prevention for the land and improve the habitat and food supply for wildlife.
“We thought it was important to get some of those native shrubs, woody shrubs, back into the environment that had been taken out,” Bringhurst said. “Just kind of rehabbing an area that had some needed infrastructure work done for the city.
“It was something that I don’t think we could do without (the students).”
The grassroots effort was led by Leslie Griffin, a BYU senior finance major and Mapleton native who was searching for a required class project that would impact a community. The prior semester’s group had done a project in Africa, so she said she felt her class needed to come up with something impressive.
Griffin reached out to Mapleton Just Serve Coordinator Michelle Estes, who brought to her attention the Forest Service’s planting project. She presented the idea to her classmates in February, and they were all for it.
From there, it was time to mobilize the troops.
“We started printing out flyers on campus, handing them out,” said Cole Carlile, a BYU junior and class member. “We posted on Just Serve as well, and then on Facebook groups. Just from that month-and-a-half, we’ve been trying to get as many people as possible, putting flyers in local wards and stuff like that.”
The Forest Service provided the shrubs and 60 shovels, and the students secured 30 additional shovels courtesy of a BYU clean-up group, Griffin said.
People turned out Saturday morning, and the crew went to work planting golden currants, serviceberries, chokecherries and wood roses.
“It was just a wonderful opportunity for the community to gather,” Griffin said. “It was really cool to have little kids come do maybe their first service project and have so many people there that could be impacted to want to serve in the future.”
Bringhurst added: “Leslie and the students just really impressed me. That is something that would be very difficult to do on our own, just the sheer volume of plants. And Leslie really took a leadership role, recruiting volunteers and getting the people there, and it really just took a burden off my shoulders.”
The project also came together at the perfect time, according to Bringhurst. For plants to set down roots and survive, they need to have water when they’re first planted, meaning the planting window is in the spring and fall — before or after Utah’s hot and dry summer season.
“We planted them, and then right as we’re leaving, the rain started, which is really going to help those plants with their survival rate and set down roots,” Bringhurst said. “That’s really the big part, the water. Water and just the temperatures are better for the plants in the spring. So that’s kind of why we have that window.”
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- Volunteers plants shrubs in Mapleton Canyon on Saturday, March 29, 2025.
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- A pair of volunteers plant shrubs in Mapleton Canyon on Saturday, March 29, 2025.
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- Volunteers plants shrubs in Mapleton Canyon on Saturday, March 29, 2025.
