Tree Planting Project in Cape Breton Highlands National Park (2023)

This past Fall (2023), Replant.ca Environmental was able to assist with some tree planting work in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  Cape Breton Highlands National Park (CBHNP) is located within the northern half of Cape Breton, which is the northeast end of the province of Nova Scotia.  If you're trying to drive there, it's about an four hour drive from Halifax.

This project was designed and implemented under the direction of One Tree Planted.

 

Here's a graphic (courtesy of Google Earth) showing the approximate location of our planting sites:

 

CBHNP is characterized predominantly by balsam fir and white spruce trees, with pockets of mountain ash (dogberry), tamarack (eastern larch), red maple, white birch, and some other deciduous species.

Most of CBHNP consists of rolling hills covered with forests.  However, the Park also has a number of previously forested areas which were devastated by the spruce budworm a few decades ago, and which have failed to re-establish due to the large moose population. At the moment, the moose population is down quite a bit from historical averages, which presents an opportunity to re-establish more forest cover.

Here are a few photos of our team in action:

 

The work was quite challenging.  There was a lot of brush and vegetation to work through, and a lot of fallen tree trunks to walk over which were hidden in the vegetation.  Also, access is quite challenging, and most of the remaining work will need to be done using the assistance of helicopters.

We were very pleased to act as a supply partner to One Tree Planted on this project, doing the boots-on-the-ground tree planting work while they approved the project design and provided the financial support.

All in all, despite the challenges, this project was a very rewarding experience!

You can see more photos of our 2023 tree planting work on this site by visiting our public Planting Photos folder on Dropbox.  Go into the 2023 sub-folder, then go into the "Cape Breton Highlands National Park" sub-folder.

We'd especially like to thank Anne-Claude and Peter and the rest of the staff at CBHNP for their hospitality and logistical support while we were on site.

Jonathan "Scooter" Clark

www.replant-environmental.ca

Replant.ca Environmental is a Canadian company that plants trees for carbon capture and builds community forests.  We also plant trees in national, provincial, and municipal public parks to mitigate damage from wildfires, storms, insects, and forest diseases.  We operate thanks to numerous small contributions from the general public, in addition to larger project sponsorships from NGO's, businesses, and corporations around the world.  If you'd like to learn how to show your support, visit our donations page.  Even if you aren't able to make a contribution, we very much appreciate when people are able to share our posts or our website link on social media, to help spread the word about the work that we're doing!

To learn more about the various species that we plant, visit the conifers page or the deciduous (hardwoods) page on our website.  Thanks so much for your interest!