More than 100 acres of land near Pine Lake has been gifted with the planting of thousands of native shrubs by almost 100 volunteers to help restore the area's natural biodiversity.
The undertaking was made before and on National Tree Day on Sept. 24 and was sponsored by the Alberta office of the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), a national non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of natural areas that sustain the country's plants and wildlife.
Kara Rapke, communications coordinator for NCC's Alberta office, said the tree planting project was carried out on a 113-acre parcel of land located about 35 kilometres east of Innisfail on the west side of Pine Lake. She said the land, which is considered to be important habitat for deer, moose, coyote and white American pelicans, was purchased by the organization from a private landowner in late 2013.
“What we try to do as an organization is we try to save what is best of what is left in Alberta,” said Rapke.
She said this parcel of land was of interest for the NCC as it was within the Red Deer River natural area, which is a “focus” for the organization, which manages more than 200 other properties across Alberta, some of them being thousands of acres in size.
“Not only because it is a habitat for internationally important waterfowl but it's also important because it is an area where there is still a lot of biodiversity, and a lot of environmental richness where we can still make an impact,” said Rapke, adding the land is in close proximity to other NCC properties. “It creates wildlife corridors so there is better habitat and movement of wildlife in the area.”
Rapke said up to 100 volunteers came on three different days, including two corporate groups, with a third smaller public group of 15 committing themselves for National Tree Day.
“It was for anybody who wanted to get their hands dirty for nature,” she said. “This was a great opportunity to get involved in conservation.”
The volunteers planted shrubs such as pin cherry, chokecherry, prickly wild rose and red osier dogwood, said Rapke, noting the public tree planting also gave volunteers the opportunity to learn more about the local knob and kettle ecosystem as well as mastering planting techniques.
“This is a huge step towards improving the health of the forest's understory. It was a massive job with the planting of almost 3,200 shrubs,” said Rapke, adding her organization hosted 28 volunteer opportunities, with more than 300 citizens participating this past summer with more events coming up later in the fall.
“Along with planting shrubs, volunteers have pulled wildlife-friendly fences, counted butterflies -- a great indicator of biological health -- and they've even helped us pull a lot of weeds across Alberta.”
For more information on NCC visit the organization's website at natureconservancy.ca/ab
For volunteer opportunities go to www.conservationvolunteers.ca
