After 2009’s Station Fire, many Angelenos came out to help with reforestation efforts by replanting seedlings in the Station Fire Burn Zone – but unfortunately, many of those seedlings have not taken root well enough to survive.

Over the weekend, the LA Times reported that only a quarter of the 900,000 or so seedlings planted were thriving, which is well below the Forest Service’s target goal of 75% survival. Foresters say most of the failures were due to the unusually dry winter and terrain too rough for replanting, but some have also criticized the choice of trees used in the efforts, saying they were not species originally found in the areas to be reforested.

The reforestation efforts were part of a plan to plant three million trees over five years, although now officials are aiming for 900,000 thriving trees in the next three years.

While NBC Los Angeles is a bit more optimistic – their verification of the reports claim that almost half of the seedlings survived – any further reforestation efforts will have to wait until next year, when conditions will hopefully be better for the saplings.

Tags: Angeles National Forest, failure, fires, reforestation efforts, station fire