Workers in P.A. National Park prepare the fuel break last winter. (File Photo/paNOW Staff).

By Michael Joel-Hansen

Christmas Chopping

P.A. National Park inviting public to grab a Christmas tree

Nov 25, 2019 | 5:00 PM

Starting next month Prince Albert National Park is inviting people to visit and get a free Christmas tree at the same time.

The park’s fourth annual Christmas tree harvest, which gets underway Dec. 1 and runs until Christmas Eve will allow people to take a tree from the community fuel break surrounding the Waskesiu townsite.

Park Ecologist Dustin Guedo said the community fuel break was developed in 2001 and saw many trees removed from around the townsite. Now those trees are starting to grow back and need to be taken out. Guedo explained this is how the initiative came to be.

“We kind of had the idea of hey, this would be a really fun way to get Canadians involved,” he said.

There is no charge to take a tree. People who are interested are encouraged to come to the park and come to the visitors centre where they will be given a permit and map. The map will show people where they can harvest. People will have to bring their own tree removal tools. It’s a popular initiative.

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“In our first year we gave out 94 permits and then the last two years we’ve given out 205 and 153 permits, so it’s a fairly popular program,” Guedo said.

There is no cap on the number of permits which will be issued. Guedo explained the forest is quite rich in terms of the number of regenerative trees.

Guedo stressed keeping the fuel break well maintained is important given what it means for protecting the townsite.

“Its an important tool that we would use if a wildfire was to threaten the townsite,” he said.

MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn