By James Bowler

VIDEO: Students lend a hand in environment preservation

May 29, 2013 | 4:47 PM

Grade 5 students from in and around Prince Albert travelled to the Downtown Lions Ballpark at the Little Red River Park Wednesday to plant seedlings for the Power 99 24th Annual “Plants a Forest Project”.

More than 500 students planted 10,000 trees throughout the day.

“We’re going to be planting the world’s newest forest thanks to the help of over 500 Grade 5 [students] from Prince Albert and area schools,” said Garth Kalin, operations manager for Power 99 and organizer of the event.

“The forest all around us is diseased, it has Dwarf Mistletoe, and basically the forest is dying. So we’re planting a different species of tree that is much more hardy and resilient to this disease and basically replenishing a dying forest.”

According to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment, Lodgepole Pine Dwarf Mistletoe is a parasitic plant seed. The plant stems into the host tree and absorbs all of its nutrients, which can cause deformities, growth loss and in many cases death of the tree. The parasite plant most often will attach itself to Lodgepole Pines and Jack Pines.

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There is no way to cure the host tree of the parasite and the only way to manage and stop the spread of it is by clear cutting an entire area of trees.

Kalin said the disease has recently spread into the trees at the park, so the idea is to plant the new species of tree to eliminate the disease from the area.

Brittany Olde, a Grade 4/5 teacher at Vincent Massey Community School, said it’s important for kids to learn about sustainability and natural resources.

“It’s important for them to know about natural resources and sustainability, preservation and conservation,” Olde said.

She added that some of the Grade 5 students planting this year were also out planting last year.

“Anything that’s hands on and they’re helping out, they love it,” said Olde.

Erin Holoduik, a Grade 5 teacher at Vincent Massey Community School said what they’ve learned from tree planting will be carried back into the classroom.

“We do a natural resources unit, so we’ll definitely talk about that, especially when we get to the protecting the environment portion,” Holoduik said. “It’s great for [the students] to be out in nature and to experience it and also to have some pride and help out their community.”

When the kids arrived, they were greeted by city workers and forest fire management and given a tutorial.

“They get to learn about trees, they get to learn about the forest, they get a little background in what happens on our earth and how to take care of it,” Kalin said. “Then they each get about 30 trees, and they get their shovel, and the city workers and forest fire management explain how to plant the trees.”

Tanner Soles, an 11-year-old Vincent Massey Community School student said he felt it was important to plant the trees to replace he diseased ones.

“They have to cut down all the dying trees, so it’s going to help regrow another forest,” Soles said.

According to Kalin, nearly 250,000 trees have been planted over the years by more than 10,000 Grade 5 students.

jbowler@panow.com

On Twitter: @journalistjim