ForestNation Blog

Landmark Group of builders a ForestNation partner marked the start of its campaign to plant 10,000 trees on Saturday by giving away ForestNation tree growing kits to attendees of the Home$aver event Edmonton, Canada.

The Home$aver Event is part of The City of Edmonton’s CO2RE program, a community-wide initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Edmonton (www.edmonton.ca/co2re). It also supports The Way We Green, Edmonton’s environmental strategic plan (www.edmonton.ca/thewaywegreen).

The Landmark Group's tree kit is a house shaped kit containing all you need to plant and grow your own tree at home and for every kit ForestNation will plant another tree in a developing country. The house shape links The Landmark Group's industry sector, its commitment to sustainability and The City of Edmonton’s Home$aver event in a neat little package that visitors could take home as a memento of the event and as a way of getting directly involved in sustainable issues. 

Students from 5 schools in Alcañiz in Spain planted 300 trees in the Motorland race circuit to help improve the environment.  The trees were given to the circuit as part of last years campaign where with Fundacion Repsol where we gave 1000 trees to each MotoGP circuit in Spain, and planted 29,000 tree in Haiti.  Hopefully we'll see more of these trees being planted this year.

Hello WCAFI world!

The youth are our future, plain and simple.  This is about a cool presentation, which will eventually create more clean air.

The Ontario Nipissing Early Years Center is a place for children six years old and under, and their parents and caregivers, to take part in amazing programs and activities together.  They have a wide variety of interesting topics, all of which help to educate youth.

The WCAFI was lucky to get an opportunity to be one of those events, by giving our “Clean Air Workshop.”  I presented to this group of enthusiastic youth and their parents about Climate Change, the benefits of trees, and the WCAFI.  They even got Clean Air Tree Kits!  The coolest part about this workshop, and why it will be memorable, is that this is the youngest group to grow Clean Air Trees!

A special thanks to the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority for sponsoring the kits for this workshop.  We will be keeping up with these young Clean Air Pioneers, and their trees, and can’t wait to see the bright new growth sprout!

Until next time

Hello WCAFI community!  Lately I have been focusing on stories of initiative around the world, and I have one more tale today!

This one is about a very inspiring individual who believes that trees are the future, and decided to make a random act of kindness around his community.  His name is Elwyn Behnke, a logger that is very eco aware.  He planted Butternut trees around North Bay, Ontario at public places such as the Ministry of Natural Resources office.  He also gave away 100 saplings for other people to plant around the area!  So why did this start?

Elwyn’s career as a logger has some very cool mottos.  His dad started his company (Behnke Logging and Trucking LTD.) in 1949, and Elwyn took over in 1980.  Elwyn is hoping to pass this tradition to his son.  His logging company cuts renewably, “only cutting down what they plant.”  This is logging like farming, providing a greener planet so they will always have lumber!  Elwyn also wants the Butternut trees to thrive because he used them in carpentry when he was in high-school, and would like to see it commonly used today.

One of the cool parts of giving out the Butternut trees to many people is the fact that it will influence and educate the community about the protection and preservation of the Butternut tree.  Each person will nurture and grow these trees as their own and will increase the Butternut tree`s survival rate.

The Butternut tree has been rapidly decreasing in population in North America, due to a disease called Butternut Canker.  The Canker fungus is believed to have come from outside of Canada.  This disease is an uncontrollable nuisance throughout the range of the Butternut, which slowly cuts off nutrients to first the tree’s crown, then down to the tree’s roots.  The tree becomes exposed to the disease through insect wounds, buds, and openings in the bark, providing multiple entries for the fungus.  The tree’s nuts may become infected, which would cause the sapling to die early.   One of the ways the Canker is being combated are hybrids such as Butternut combined with English walnut.

How do you spot the Canker?  Look for black sooty patches, or in the spring look for black ooze coming out of holes in the bark.  They will have their crown die first, and then start having the die off go lower and lower.  The canker’s themselves are diamond, sunken in, brown or black patches.

The Butternut tree (Also known as White Walnut) is valued by carpenters for their softness, colour and varying texture, and is very useful.  It is now listed as a Species at Risk in Ontario, and an Endangered species in Canada.  Animals such as squirrels eat the Butternut, as the nut is an important food source.  First Nations also use the nut for cooking, hair dressing, leather making and polishing tools. The Butternut tree has a 75 year life span.  The Canker disease was noticed in Canada in the 1990’s.

Elwyn has taken a huge step just by simply planting some trees.  This inspires me and shows that anyone can make a huge difference, whether the outcome is saving a species or educating youth. 

So get out there, and be inspired!

Hello WCAFI world, the future is looking bright for tomorrow’s leaders because of one worldwide group called Global Vision. 

So what is Global Vision?  It helps the youth of the world ages 16-25 to get out and speak to their fellow youths, and gives them the opportunity to talk to delegates from other countries.  Go to http://www.globalvision.ca/news to learn more about it. 

I was lucky enough to present at the conference, talking about the initiatives WCAFI is taking.  I also handed out Clean Air Tree Kits to every person that was there.  There is a lot to learn from these inspirational people and there is a lot to learn from their presentations based on topics of the upcoming G8. 

The Minister of Industry Tony Clement and Director General of the Summits Management Office Sanjeev Chowdhury were present at the Bracebridge conference, as well as local business owners and of course, Junior Team Canada.  By the way, Junior Team Canada is the name for the group of students who are the future leaders, and they are given the option to move on.  This may sound big, but it is only step one. 

There are 4 steps, each getting progressively more challenging and more important.  Well, in this process you get to meet inspirational youth, the Prime Minister, and other youth delegates from across the WORLD!  The Global Vision team is very important to the leaders of the future, and they have a motivational team.  I would like to thank Amy and David for letting me present at the conference.  If you are a leader, try to find a Global Vision conference.  It may be the best thing you ever do!  

MacKenzie Willis   

P.S.  To all the wonderful people I met at the conference, I would love it if you could write back and comment!