Kettle Lakes - Trees for Canada

The Boy Scouts of Canada had a program called Trees for Canada, that changed maybe 10 years ago to a program called Scoutrees.

The very first Trees for Canada in the Timmins area was planted inside Kettle Lakes Provincial Park. The records indicate that a total of 11000 white spruce and jack pine were planted near Irrigation Lake.

The white spruce have been growing slower then the jack pine, which is common. White spruce can handle the shade created by taller trees. When the taller trees die out and allow more sunlight to reach the ground the white spruce will take off.

It is just another wonderful story about trees in the park.

I was not around Timmins in 1980, but I was involved in every plant from 1986 to 2003. I do not know if the Scouts have planted since then. The first plant I attended in 1986 was just south of the Deloro landfill. The container type was 408 paper pot. The container was made of paper and pulled apart from the other tree seedlings. Many trees were planted a little too high and left a little bit of paper showing. Crows from the landfill came over and pulled out hundreds of the trees.

It looked like someone had come the day after the plant and just pulled out every tree. Some were sitting up on stumps and some were even sitting in the trees. Those curious birds!

Picture : Line of planted white spruce trees, first Boy Scout Tree Plant in the Timmins District.

Taken : August 03, 2009

Location : map

Year Township Number and Species

1980 German (KLP) 11 000 White spruce and Jack pine

1981 Massey 10 000 Jack pine

1982 Carscallen 10 000 Jack pine

1983 Denton 8 525 White spruce

1984 Carscallen 5 000 Jack pine

1985 Murphy 5 000 Jack pine

1986 Murphy 5 000 Jack pine

1987 Deloro 5 000 Jack pine

1988 Deloro 5 000 Jack pine

1989 Evelyn 5 000 Jack pine

1990 Little 6 150 Jack pine

1991 Macklem 5 000 Jack pine

1992 Macklem 5 150 Jack pine

1993 Macklem 4 400 Jack pine

1994 Evelyn 2 500 Jack pine

1995 Evelyn 4 500 Jack pine

1996 German 3 500 Jack pine
**********100 725 seedling to date!***********

1997 German? 3000 jackpine

1998 German? 3000 jackpine

1999 German? 3000 jackpine

2000 German? 2500 jackpine

2001 Tisdale 2000 Jack pine

2002 Tisdale 2000 Jack pine

2003 Tisdale 1 600 White spruce and 100 White pine