When the 108 Greenbelt’s Walker Valley burned in 2017 not much of its original forest was left.
Hundreds of trees between the ages of 80 to 120 were lost in the Gustafsen Fire. The spring after the fire hundreds of South Cariboo children came together to help plant between 1,000 to 2,000 lodgepole pines. Now almost six years later the forest is on its way to recovery thanks to their efforts with dozens of saplings now standing taller than the average man.
“This is really good survival. It’s right up there with professional planters as far as quality and survival goes,” Chris Betuzzi, a commissioner with the 108 Mile Ranch Greenbelt Commission and a registered forest technician, said. “You’ve got to give the kids credit, they’re the future of the province and they did a great job here.”
During 2017 Betuzzi was the provincial wildfire coordination officer for B.C. Wildfire. Crews coordinated by Betuzzi fought the fire as it spread from two kilometres west of the old Norbord Plant and while two homes and the forest in the Walker Valley were lost, he said it could have been significantly worse.
Following the fires Betuzzi joined the 108 Mile Greenbelt Commission as a volunteer and was involved with removing close to 100 loads of burnt logs from Walker Valley. When the replanting effort was suggested to the commission he was fully on board.
“The Greenbelt here is a pretty precious thing. I’ve done a bit of research and we’re one of the only areas in the world that has half private land and half public land,” Betuzzi said. “It’s basically 700 hectares of private property and 700 hectares of green space and that’s something we’d like to protect. Walker Valley specifically is known worldwide as a birding destination.”
READ MORE: Rehabilitation has begun on Gustafsen fire
The initial idea for the project came from two Horse Lake Elementary School students. Leon Meili and Ethan Hindmarsh, then both in Grade 7 and members of the leadership class, wanted to do something to help the area recover after the wildfire and suggested the class plant some trees.
Their teacher Lisa Pugh went on to champion the cause connecting with the 108 Mile Greenbelt Commission, West Fraser, the Cariboo Regional District and other schools in the South Cariboo. By the time they were ready to plant in May of 2018 100 Mile Elementary School, Lac La Hache Elementary School, Eliza Archie Memorial School and Forest Grove Elementary School had all joined in with 900 children heading out to plant trees over the course of a day.
“Now looking back at the trees that were no longer than our forearms that are now so tall, it chokes me up,” Pugh said. “Leon, Ethan and all the kids who came out to help plant over 1,000 trees have helped jump start the rehabilitation of a habitat. It was an honour to help facilitate Leon and Ethan’s vision.”
Providing the saplings for the project was Roserim Nursery with a team led by Todd Schmidt, West Fraser’s silviculture superintendent for its South Cariboo operations, coming to provide technical experience during the plant. Schmidt accompanied Betuzzi last week to visit the plant site, the first time in six years, and remarked he was impressed by how many of the trees had survived.
“I’m very impressed, I’ll be sneaking the rest of my crew out here to have a look too,” Schmidt said.
He recalled that the day of the planting was a hot one so they set up camp in the shade of some of the remaining trees. Schmidt said it was great seeing the kids not only having fun but also learning that they could make a difference.
“I’m a silviculture forester so I live for planting trees but for us, this project was about getting the kids involved,” Schmidt said. “The Walker Valley is completely different from what it was before, so to have kids come out and have an opportunity to help nature was important.”
Joining Betuzzi and Schmidt in revisiting the trees were their daughters Caroline Betuzzi and Jamie Schmidt, who were among the hundreds of students who took part in the project. Now both in Grade 11 the two recall coming to Walker Valley by school bus and each getting the chance to plant a few trees.
“Planting the trees was kind of fun,” Jamie said. “It was nifty, I liked digging the holes and trees are cool.”
Jamie and Caroline said it was cool to see how big some of the trees have grown in the past few years.
Betuzzi and Schmidt said that while the trees the students planted are doing well, the rest of the formerly forested areas still seem largely barren. Schmidt remarked that West Fraser may consider planting another 800 trees per hectare to help encourage that recovery.
“West Fraser is looking to do some planting next spring so maybe we could get some kids involved and do it again,” Betuzzi remarked. “It would be a whole new bunch of kids to draw on by now.”