Band Encouraged To Give Agro-Forestry A Try

Band Encouraged To Give Agro-Forestry A Try

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 at 14:40

Officials at the Saskatchewan Forest Centre are hoping to convince some First Nations chiefs they should plant more trees on reserve land.

Andrea Atkinson of the SFC’s agro-foresty team says a call is going out this fall to band leaders that they should look at growing stands of fast-growing poplars.

Under the terms of the Kyoto treaty, Canada has to reduce a large amount of industrial gases that contribute to global warming.

Atkinson says some factories may actually begin to pay landowners to grow trees for them, so they can claim them as a carbon sink that is eating up harmful emissions.

Atkinson says some tree stands have been planted as far north as Meadow Lake.

However, she doubts poplar trees will grow any farther north of that line, but encourages bands to contact the Saskatchewan forest centre if they’re interested in more details.