Fort McMurray's fire-ravaged urban forest gets help from local teen
Caitlyn Lepine hated to see the city's greenery gone
The blackened cityscape in the aftermath of the Fort McMurray fire was too much for 14-year-old Caitlyn Lepine to bear.
"It was terrifying and upsetting," she said.
"We moved to Fort McMurray because we liked the green and we liked all the trees. And driving out during the fire all we saw was smoke and flames.
"The whole reason why I love my city was up in flames," Lepine said.
So Lepine began a fundraising campaign to buy seedlings to replant her city's trees.
This week Lepine, along with her family and friends, brought more than 1,500 seedlings to MacDonald Island Park, Fort McMurray's downtown recreation centre, and handed them out to anyone who wanted to replant a tree that was burned or cleared to save houses or buildings.
"I thought only trees burned but a lot of homeowners lost trees just from bulldozers, so they are going to be replanting too," Lepine said.
Maple, oak, ash, black gum and sourwood seedlings were donated by Veseys, a P.E.I.-based seed company.
Every tree was scooped up within the day.
The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo says it has no immediate plans to replant trees within its service area, as it's focused on recovery and rebuilding.
Burned tree tally
The municipality roughly estimates between 1,000 and 1,500 trees were lost in town and along trail areas.
In the wider area, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry's preliminary estimates show that 590,000 hectares of forest, containing millions of trees, were lost.
As a result, the forestry ministry said it has reduced sustainable harvest levels in the area by 250,000 cubic metres per year until the forest recovers.
That translates into a reduction of about 7,000 truckloads of logs.
But unlike Lepine, the ministry said it has no immediate plans to start seeding Fort McMurray's forests.
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Instead the province said it's relying on the boreal forest to regenerate naturally.
"I feel for them," said Darren Tapp, executive director of the Forest Management Branch with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. "The only comfort I can provide is that the forest will grow back.
"We don't anticipate it will stay black very long. Things are already starting to grow back."
Tapp said it would cost about $1.2 billion to replant the forests the wildfire devoured.
Instead the ministry will seek provincial funding for grants to timber harvesters who have invested money in the past to replant sections of the forest.
That request will be made in November or December once a final report into the full extent of the forest damage is complete.