Tree Planting Project in Cape Breton Highlands National Park

This past Fall (2024), Replant.ca Environmental was able to do more work on a long-term tree planting project in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  This work was part of a ongoing project on North Mountain that we're committed to for the next several years.

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.  North Mountain is located between Cheticamp and Cape North.

This multi-year project was designed and implemented under the direction of Nova Scotia's Clean Foundation.

 

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, eastern white pine, 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 this year's team in action:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The work was quite challenging.  There was a lot of brush and vegetation to work through, and we had to climb over a lot of fallen tree trunks which were hidden in the vegetation.  Also, access is quite remote, requiring helicopters to get the crew and the trees into the planting sites each day.  This is quite tricky, because the weather is very unpredictable on North Mountain, and helicopters can't fly in fog or low clouds.

We were very pleased to act as a supply partner to the Clean Foundation on this project, doing the boots-on-the-ground tree planting work while they managed the project concept and provided financial backing and logistical support.

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

You can see more photos of our tree planting work at this site by visiting our Planting Photos folder on Dropbox, then going into the "2024 Planting Photos" folder, then into the "Cape Breton Highlands National Park" sub-folder.  Start here:

    www.replant-environmental.ca/photos

 

We'd especially like to thank everyone for their hospitality and logistical support while we were on site.  Special shout-outs to Anne-Claude and Peter from Parks Canada, Cayla and Hannah from the Department of Natural Resources, Sean & Don from Strathlorne, and Beth and the other staff at Clean Foundation.

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!