Tree Planting Project, Simooaquik Bird Sanctuary, New Brunswick (2025)

Here's a post to share some info about an environmental protection project that we completed on behalf of one of our Sponsor Partners.  The tree planting work on this site (which is in southeastern New Brunswick) was done in the Fall of 2025.  The project site is very close to the main corner in Shemogue.  The planting on this site was entirely sponsored by Forests Canada.

 

This site was harvested relatively recently, by a third party, and our goal was to rebuild a new forest there, specifically so that it can be a now and future bird sanctuary.  The site is large (over fifty acres) and is located in the northern shoulder of the very environmentally sensitive Chignecto Isthmus region, which is a critical wildlife corridor.  Here's a link showing the approximate location of this project:

 

The name that we picked for this site (Simooaquik Bird Sanctuary) comes from what was allegedly the original Mi'kmaq name for the region, which may have been roughly translated into, "Good place for Geese."  The primary purpose of this project was to support biodiversity and wildlife habitat.  A secondary goal was supporting climate stability through carbon sequestration.  

In total, the planting team added 39,390 seedlings to this site.  The site also features some natural regeneration of white birch, red maple, yellow birch, balsam poplar, and other hardwoods and soft deciduous.  Diverse forests are healthy forests.

Here are a few more photos taken during the planting of this project, which took place in early October of 2025:
 

 

We look forward to studying this site in the coming years.  We will be doing periodic surveys to assess the carbon capture progress of the new forest.

Again, a huge thanks to Forests Canada, the sponsors and lead on this major project.

You can see several dozen additional photos of the work on this planting site by visiting our public planting photos folder on Dropbox.  Visit this link then go into the "2025 Planting Photos" folder, then into the "Simooaquick Bird Sanctuary" sub-folder:

    www.replant-environmental.ca/photos 

 

Thanks for reading!

- Jonathan 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 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!

Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.

 

 

 

 

 

Tree Planting Project in Cape Breton Highlands National Park (2025)

This past Fall (2025), 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, with financial assistance from the Province of Nova Scotia.

 

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.

The 2025 project was especially challenging due to the heat wave and extreme drought that Nova Scotia experienced in the summer, lasting until just a few weeks before we started to plant.  At one point, the public was prohibited from all activities on crown land throughout the province, and our helicopters were off fighting wildfire (thankfully helping to protect lives and property).  We were quite happy when it started to rain shortly before we were scheduled to begin the project. 

All in all, despite the challenges, this project was a very rewarding experience!  We planted 217,889 trees in the Park in 2025.

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 "2025 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!

 

Tree Planting in Gros Morne National Park (2023)

Edit:  You can see an updated post for similar (and more recent) work in 2024 at this link:

www.replant-environmental.blogspot.com/2024/11/tree-planting-project-in-gros-morne.html

 ---

 

This past Fall (2023), Replant.ca Environmental was able to assist with some tree planting work in Gros Morne National Park.  Gros Morne is located on the west coast of Newfoundland, near Rocky Harbour.  If you're trying to drive there, it's about an hour north of Corner Brook (or four hours of driving north of the ferry terminal in Port Aux Basques).

 

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

 

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

Some of Gros Morne consists of rolling hills covered with forests.  Visitors will also discover exposed rock faces, bogs, ponds, and wetlands.  Gros Morne unfortunately has a number of previously forested areas which were devastated by the spruce budworm several decades ago, and which have failed to re-establish.  These significant gaps in the forest canopy become more apparent when flying over the Park at low altitudes.

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, the blocks required helicopters for access, which led to significant downtime since the helicopter often couldn't fly in Newfoundland's frequent foggy weather.  However, our team loved the experience of getting to visit Newfoundland and getting some exposure to the local culture.

All in all, 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 "Gros Morne National Park" sub-folder.

We'd especially like to thank Darroch Whitaker and the rest of the staff at Gros Morne 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!

 

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!

Tree Planting Project at Fort Folly First Nation (2023)

In September of 2023,  Replant.ca Environmental was once again able to connect with the Mi'kmaq First Nation at Fort Folly. The Nation is located near Dorchester in Westmorland County, New Brunswick.  This area, as well as the rest of what is now referred to as the Maritime provinces and parts of the Gaspé peninsula, are part of the Peace and Friendship region of Turtle Island. It was an honour and privilege to support reforestation on this land.  It allowed us the opportunity to appreciate the unique role and relationship that Indigenous people have with the land, both historically and in the present time.

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

 

Fort Folly First Nation is one of nine Mi'kmaq First Nations (and it is one of fifteen First Nations in New Brunswick).  Tantramar (formerly known as Sackville), the central base of operations for Replant.ca Environmental, is also located very close to Fort Folly First Nation.

  

Fort Folly First Nation (FFFN) has an old decommissioned transmission corridor running through the Nation.  NB Power does not use this line anymore, and the transmission towers have been removed.  The Nation is hoping to return this strip of land to a mature forest ecosystem.  There is some natural regeneration occurring along the corridor now that the utility has stopped doing vegetation encroachment prevention, but we added some more seedlings to help accelerate the process of becoming a full forest again (to augment the work that we started in 2022).

The Nation also has a beautiful circular 3km Medicine Trail.  We were privileged to walk the entirety of the trail, and to enjoy the time to reflect and meditate on the natural environment surrounding us.  Some of the forest adjoining the trail is patchy and we were invited to augment those areas too.  We ended up adding young trees around many parts of the Medicine Trail.

We had done some initial work at Fort Folly in 2022.  You can read this post to learn about our previous work that year.  Our 2023 project allowed us to expand greatly upon our previous efforts.

Here are a few photos of our work at Fort Folly in 2023:

 

 

 

In total, we planted 15,628 seedlings in 2023.  This was in addition to the 6,319 seedlings that we planted during the first phase of this project in 2022.  Again, we want to thank the Nation for allowing us to help contribute to the land.  You can learn more about Fort Folly First Nation by visiting this link:

https://fortfolly.ca/about-us

 

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.

You can see several dozen additional photos of our work on this planting site by visiting our public Planting Photos folder on Dropbox.  Go into the 2023 sub-folder, then go into the "Fort Folly First Nation" sub-folder.

 

Thanks for reading!

- Jonathan 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 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!

 

Tree Planting Project at Fishing Cove, Cape Breton Highlands (2023)

This past Fall (2023), Replant.ca Environmental tackled a small environmental restoration project in Cape Breton, near Fishing Cove.

This project took place close to the Cabot Trail, on the northwest side of Cape Breton (just slightly south of Pleasant Bay).  There are a couple of gravel pits in this area which have been used as a source for aggregates for road construction and repair.  One of these pits has been completely decommissioned, and the other has been partly decommissioned.  Our goal was to plant trees in the parts of the pits which are no longer being used to supply construction material.

 

Here's a graphic (courtesy of Google Earth) showing the location of the borrow pits:

These two borrow pits fall within the confines of Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  We also did a separate project within the Park (on North Mountain) which was a much larger project.

The weather was very cold and rainy when we were completing this project, but that didn't dampen the spirits of the planting team.

Here are a few photos of the seedlings and of the team in action at Fishing Cove:

 

 

 

   

You can see many more photos of our 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 "Fishing Cove" sub-folder.

We'd like to thank Anne-Claude and her staff for their hospitality and support while we were on site, and to the project sponsor One Tree Planted for providing the financial resources that helped make this project happen.

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 businesses, corporations, and NGO's 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! 

 

The Douglas Fir tree (Pseudotsuga menziesii)

Today's post will be about the Douglas Fir tree.  The Latin name for this species is Pseudotsuga menziesii.  What a mouthful.  Thankfully, everyone [in Canada] seems to agree on just one name, Douglas fir, even though this tree is a pretender.  But we'll get into that below.  First, a photo of a Douglas fir.  

 

This particular tree is called Big Lonely Doug.  It was featured in a book called Big Lonely Doug by Harley Rustad.  It's a good read, should you choose to pick up a copy.

Here's a range map, courtesy of Wikipedia:

 

The interesting thing is that this map suggests that Douglas fir only grows naturally within BC and southwestern Alberta (within Canada).  However, although Douglas fir is planted very commonly in BC, we've also planted small amounts of this species on select projects in the Maritimes!  Of course, it's not suitable for all projects on the east coast, since it's not a naturalized tree.  But some of the east coast nurseries grow it.  While I was digging around to find any history of Douglas fir in the Maritimes, I discovered that there was a plantation made near Stanhope (PEI) that was still healthy in the 1960's, and even today there may be other stands on PEI in Melville and Brookdale.

Douglas fir has a rich history in western Canada, and has been a critical part of the forest industry due to its value as lumber.  While the tree was essentially unknown throughout most of North America in the 1800's, by the mid-20th century it had become known as "the world's premier industrial tree," taking the place of Eastern White Pine after all the old growth pine on the east coast had been decimated.

Douglas fir likes direct sunlight, but it is also shade-tolerant.  Because of this, it can be found in pure even-aged stands (usually after a wildfire or a commercial harvest), in uneven-age stands, and also in mixwood forests.  It is happy to co-exist among other species, especially hemlock, cedar, pine, larch, and even aspen.  It doesn't like to grow up with spruce trees though.  Maybe they get jealous of each other because of how straight and clean the trunks grow.

Douglas fir is considered to be a false fir.  The real firs are species in BC such as Amabilis, Subalpine, and Grand Fir (or Balsam fir in Alberta and central/eastern Canada).  Douglas fir is not a type of pine, spruce or hemlock either.  Douglas fir is its own thing.  The Latin family name (Pseudotsuga) means "false hemlock."

Being a conifer, the Douglas fir has needles instead of leaves.  Here's a photo of the needles on a bundle of seedlings:

Some people have problems differentiating between Douglas fir, true firs, and spruce trees.  That's not surprising.  At a quick glance, anyone who hasn't studied trees could easily be fooled.  But luckily, Nature has given Douglas fir a unique identifying feature for inexperienced silviculturalists:  Pointy buds!  The buds of the Douglas fir have a very distinct sharp point at the tip.  Here's a close-up photo, from Step By Step:

 

Here are a few Fun Facts about the Douglas fir:

1.  The Latin name for this tree (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is a nod to its "discoverer," Alexander Menzies (although of course the indigenous peoples lived with it for millennia before that).  And Douglas refers to David Douglas, a Scottish botanist who introduced the tree to Europe.

2.  Douglas fir is a deep-rooted species.  However, the taproot usually achieves more than 50% of its final depth within just the first five years of growth!

3.  The US Navy still has eight wooden ships in the active fleet (Avenger-class minesweepers) made out of ... you guessed it!  Douglas fir.

4.  An enormous Douglas fir was cut in Washington State in 1897 which measured 465 feet.  After it was cut, the New York Times called its destruction a "truly pitiable tale."  Indeed.  This tree was called the Nooksack Giant, if you'd like to dig into that bit of history.

The Douglas fir is a very noble tree.  The world needs more of them.

Thanks for reading!

- 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 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!

Teachers are welcome to use content from this post for their classes.  If you know a teacher who might like to use this information, please share it with them!  The more that people learn about trees, the better our world will be.

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!

Incidentally, our organization is often seeking additional land for our carbon capture projects.  Please visit this link if you might know of a recently-harvested property that we could rebuild into a permanent legacy forest.