Terry Halifax
Northern News Services
Hay River (Mar 26/01) - In an on-going effort to give Mother Nature a hand, foresters will plant 120,000 new spruce trees in the Deh Cho this spring.
Richard Olsen, forest officer with Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, said his office will contract out the planting of 60,000 white spruce trees in the Cameron Hills.
Young trees that will be used to reforest an area logged in 1997-98 arrived in Hay River earlier this month. Olsen said 10 people will plant 3,000 to 4,000 trees per day.
"It's just like a garden -- you don't plant during summer," he said. "In the spring it has a better chance to settle into the environment."
"The trees that are being harvested in there are between 100 and 120 years-old," Olsen said.
"It's a pretty fertile log growing site; a little bit of a slope, so it's well drained, and it's south-facing, so it gets lots of sun and the soil type is pretty good."
The government's policy is to replace all logged areas with the species that was originally harvested. Next year, Olsen said they will be reforesting in Fort Resolution.
In the Deh Cho, students will busy themselves with planting 60,000 new trees near Jean Marie River at Kelly Lake.
Steve Gooderham, regional forester with RWED in Fort Simpson, said the youth do a terrific job of planting the seedlings.
"They did 71,000 last year in three-and-a-half days," Gooderham said. "They really look forward to it."
He says the youth appreciate getting out on the land and also appreciate the extra pocket money.
The reforestation is to recover a forest lost by fire, Gooderham said.
"This was an area that was burned in the 20s," he said. "There's room for the spruce but there's no spruce there because the seed source was taken away."
He explained that although fire is a natural part of the boreal forest cycle, the area was burned again before the new trees could grow.
