Riverlot 56’s forest got a bit bigger this month after a W.D. Cuts student spent a weekend planting hundreds of trees.
Grade 9 W.D. Cuts student Cole Van Wyk rallied about 40 volunteers on June 5 and 6 to plant some 325 trees in an open field in Riverlot 56. Each tree was marked with a white stake and bolstered with water and mulch.
Van Wyk said he did the research and fundraising for this tree planting last November as part of his school’s Genius Hour initiative, where students were given two hours a week to work on projects of their choice.
“For me, I wanted to make a difference, and I wanted to plant some trees,” Van Wyk said.
Van Wyk said he reached out to City of St. Albert and Riverlot 56 officials to arrange the planting and raised some $400 to buy blue spruce seedlings from an Edmonton nursery. He decided to plant the trees in Riverlot 56 because he spent a lot of time there with his family.
Dan Stoker of the Riverlot 56 Natural Area Society said he was pleasantly surprised when Van Wyk approached him with this idea, as it was the first time someone from outside the group had asked to add trees to the region. The two agreed to plant the trees next to a group of about 6,000 the society had placed in a once-forested field in the lower/northern half of the river lot about six years ago.
Van Wyk said these trees would help restore some of the forest that was cut down centuries ago to build St. Albert, and also help address global heating. Stoker noted the trees would create animal habitat and help shade out invasive weeds such as field scabious.
“What Cole is doing this weekend will take 20-plus years before those trees are 20 feet high,” Stoker said.
Van Wyk said he hoped other city residents would follow his lead and plant trees in town. Questions on public tree planting should go to St. Albert Public Works at 780-459-1557.
