How Does Canada Plant So Many Trees?

Almost every Canadian has heard about the importance of tree planting.  And many Canadians know that a very large number of trees are planted in Canada each year.  Current estimates are that over 700 Million trees are planted each year across the country!  Some of these are planted after logging companies harvest timber for lumber or pulp & paper, and some are planted because it's just good for the environment.

 

Recently, Canada's federal government promised that they would help ensure that an extra TWO BILLION trees would be planted in Canada over the next ten years.  That's an extra 200 million trees per year, on top of the 700 million trees already being planted.  That brings the total to just under a billion trees per year!  Canadians should be proud.

Some of the trees are planted in what is known as "reforestation."  This is when a previously forested area gets planted again, to bring back a forest that is no longer there.  There are various reasons for replanting areas.  Most people immediately recognize that "replanting" occurs after logging.  But the truth is that it's a lot bigger than that.  Wildfires and insects typically kill far more trees than the logging industry, so there's always a lot of work funded by government or NGO's to fix problems after forest fires, and after tree beetle outbreaks.

Some tree planting projects focus on "afforestation."  This is when people plant trees in areas that have not had any trees recently.  If a farm has old pastureland that is not used anymore for livestock or growing food, the farmers will sometimes decide to turn it back into a forest.  And sometimes, grasslands that don't contain habitat for at-risk species will be planted, to build a new forest.

  

Trees are planted all over the country.  The majority are planted in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario, but every single province has its own tree planting programs.

Who plants the trees?  Typically, the spring and summer months are the easiest months to plant trees, because the weather is good and the ground isn't covered with snow.  Because of this, a lot of university students spend their summers planting.  But tree planting also takes place in the fall.  Some tree planting is done by large companies.  Some is done by small companies.  And some is done by NGO's and volunteers.  The variety and diversity of people who plant trees is quite incredible.

There's also a lot of variety in the types of trees that are planted.  Typically, the majority of trees planted are coniferous.  This means that they're "cone bearing" trees.  Most Canadians are familiar with these species:  pine, spruce, fir, cedar, and a few other less common species.  Most of these coniferous trees keep their needles over the winter, so they stay green year-round.

 

 

 Some people also plant "deciduous" trees.  This refers to trees with leaves that drop off the tree each winter.  You're familiar with different types of deciduous trees:  oak, birch, elms, chestnuts, and of course our favorite, the maple tree.

All told, more than forty different species of tree are planted across Canada each year!

In these uncertain times for the environment, I'm glad that Canadians place so much importance on tree planting.

If you'd like to learn more about tree planting in Canada, please visit the educational tree planting site at:

  www.replant.ca

 

Maybe you'll want to go out to your backyard this summer, and plant a tree!

- Jonathan "Scooter" Clark

Professional Tree Planter

 

Photos of a Moose Rescue in Northern Ontario

This happened a while ago (spring of 2012), but I was just looking at some photos and thought of this again and thought I'd post it to share it to a wider audience.  It's the story of a moose that got trapped in a fiber pond in Ontario.  The notes below are taken from the email that I received about it:

Sunday April 15, 2012 dawned cloudy and cool in the little community of Terrace Bay, located along the north shore of Lake Superior.  My friend and fellow Conservation Officer Jeff Anderson stopped by the house, my wife Eleanor made fresh coffee and we were enjoying a day off now that the fishing season for walleye had finally closed.

When the phone rang that morning, it was to alert us that a moose was helplessly mired in a spillway next to the towns pulp mill. Normally, the hustle and bustle of a busy factory would discourage wildlife from getting too close, but in this case, the mill had been idle for quite some time and the mill yard was quiet and tranquil. 

The large man-made ponds that surround the property are part of a system used to treat waste water. They are all fenced except for the one closest to the buildings. Its unclear as to how the young adult bull wandered into the first one, maybe he was fleeing a vehicle on the nearby road, or perhaps he just thought it was a marsh. Whatever the reason, he attempted to cross the football-field sized settling pond and began breaking through the deep layers of sodden wood fiber. 

We quickly hatched a plan and began gathering some rope, hip waders and snowshoes while Jeff grabbed a patrol truck, uniform and shotgun. It was important to be prepared for any eventuality! When we all rendezvoused at the site, we were faced with the saddest looking animal you could imagine. Utilizing the snowshoes to stay on top of the layers of fiber, we were able to approach the bull, fasten a chain knot around his neck and attempt to pull him free utilizing the winch on Jeff’s patrol truck. Unfortunately, we could not pull him horizontally with sufficient force to drag him out without the risk of injuring him, so we needed a new approach.

Mill staff came to the rescue and arrived on scene with a large, tracked loader equipped with a boom grapple. The rest of us shovelled a space around the moose’s chest around which we were able to secure a heavy line. With this new ability to lift and pull from around the animals girth, the big bull was slowly drawn out of the muck and onto the bank. 

It appeared as though he had been there overnight and he was near death from exhaustion and stress.  Remarkably, by supporting him in a prone position, giving him a couple bottles of water to drink and rubbing his legs to restore circulation, he began to perk up! After 20 minutes and several attempts, he stood up on wobbly legs for the first time in many hours. He tolerated us as we held him up and later, as he began walking with our assistance. It was a very strange experience to calmly accompany him for the long walk around the ponds perimeter, but we all felt the same heart-warming feeling when he quietly stepped into the bush under his own power, and disappeared from sight.

Terrace Bay is a town on the north shore of Lake Superior in Ontario, Canada about 150km East of Thunder Bay.

This was written by Paul Dennis, Conservation Officer, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.