PRINCE GEORGE – It’s Earth Day and the students from Ecole College Heights are taking it very seriously with a special project.
“Some of our trees and some of our trees had to be taken down because of the wind and because some of them were rotting a lot,” explains Grade Six student, Zoey.
And that was very concerning to the students at the school.
“Last fall we had a bunch of trees in the forest here that fell down, lost branches,” explains Ecole College Heights Teacher, Tamara DeFord . “Our forest was closed a lot in the fall. And the kids in my class were quite concerned about that.'”
So she approached a friend who works in forestry and made this magic happen for her students.
Prior to this day, these students were afforded a tour of the Industrial Forestry Service greenhouse on Ness Lake Road, and what she saw there was an eye-opener for Zoey.
“It surprised me how tiny they are and how tiny the seed is. How it can just grow to ginormousnessness. Giant.”
And educational for Lucas.
“I learned the process of how trees, little seeds, turn into big trees like this all around us in this forest. All the machines, all the processes that go into trees like this.”
And today, those trees are going into the ground around the school. The coloured flags identify where the trees will be planted, specially chosen locations. And two hundred seedlings were donated for the occasion.
“We’re planting pine, Douglas Fir and Spruce cuz it’s kind of a good place to plant them because there’s spruce trees and pine trees around the area.”
There’s no mistaking the joy these kids are having planting these tiny seedlings, soon to be trees, in their ginormousnessness for the rest of their lives. After all, this is why we live here.
