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West Fraser to plant thousands of trees in Boitanio Park

West Fraser Mills Ltd. will be planting 2,100 trees in Boitanio Park as a legacy project.

West Fraser Mills Ltd. will be planting 2,100 trees in Boitanio Park as a legacy project.

“We wanted to do something to celebrate our 60th anniversary in Williams Lake,” said West Fraser Plywood Plant general manager Dave Walgren during a presentation to city council at its regular meeting Tuesday.

The area where the Yellow Ponderosa Pine trees will go is near the dog park and will cover about 1.53 hectares, said Guy Burdikin, silviculture supervisor for the company.

“We just found out this morning, the proposed irrigation project funding for the city fell through so our proposal is to employ our summer students in the summer to water the trees,” Burdikin said. The trees will come from the Southern Interior so they should be well conditioned to drought conditions the region experiences in mid June, July and through the summer, he added.

Crews will prepare the site ahead of time with a small tractor to break the soil because it is too hard for tree planting as it is.

Material will be brought in from the log yard to provide moisture and promote microbial action which will help retain the trees through drought periods, Burdikin said.

During the first and second year of the tree planting, West Fraser will look after the trees, but it is hoped the city will take up the responsibility for them after that, Walgren said.

Burdikin told council in the future the city should consider planting a row of deciduous trees along the bank at the top of the park closest to Highway 97 to protect other trees in the park from salt spray used during the winter months .

“When you are up there you can see there is mortality basically from the salt weep coming off the highway,” Burdikin said. “It won’t impact the deciduous trees because they will have their leaves off in the winter months and they will act as a break because the salt spray comes in tumbling off the road.”



Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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