College Boreal / Renaissance Environmental Class

High School Credit and College Credit

Learning about the Forest, 

Trees and Work!

This class was eager learn about the forests and what we do at Millson Forestry Service. Too bad the mud had all dried up for the walk in the back, they did not get the full "Muddy Mark" tour.

No time to play in the mud anyway.

I put them to work. Their first task was to remove cones from branches. Their second task  was to replace jiffy pellets into an insert. Finally they got to work alongside Millson employees.

You can see the album of pictures on the Millson Facebook page.  see album

Gillies Lake Memorial Tree

Can I say I was tree planting,

 if I only planted 1 tree?

A memorial tree was purchased at Millson Forestry Service, part of the service included the planting.

We work with the Wintergreen Fund for Conservation to plant memorial trees, in this case at Gillies lake.

I do not know who the tree was planted for, but they did pick a nice spot over looking the lake.

where the tree seedling came from read more

who is the Wintergreen Fund for Conservation read more

where is the tree seedling planted see map

2012 Arbour Day Success

Tree Seedlings 

Bird Posters

Canada Day Signs

This is the Mattagami Park location. We had a great time meeting people and talking about trees.

The best time to plant a trees is 100 years ago, the second best time is today!

Oxygen Grows On Tress.

Day after Early Earth Day 2012

Green House turns green 

early in the new year. 

CTV Jill Colton (@CTVJillColton ) and Mark check out the greenhouse before they leave for Sudbury after spending yesterday at Timmins Honda for Early Earth Day.

It is early April and already the green house is full of green conifer seedlings.

I just love coming in here when it is -30C outside and it is +25C inside. To watch the benches turn to green in a matter of days is just incredible!

Yes Jill, there are millions of tree seedlings here - and every one has a home!
These trees are the forests of tomorrow.

Most of the millions of trees do have a home, but some are still looking. If you want to buy a tree seedling, forestry size (small) or home owner size ( 6" pots) contact Millson Forestry Service and they can let you know what is available.

Ecole Secondaire Theriault Class come to Learn

Future Environmentalist 

Learn the IMPORTANCE of our Forest Resources

The grade 12 class from Ecole Secondaire Theriault came for a tour at the greenhouse complex to learn what we do at Millson Forestry Service.   

Map of school location and street view of the entrance

École Secondaire Theriault

oxygengrowsontrees

2011 Arbour Day in Timmins Announced

ARBOUR DAY CELEBRATION

SATURDAY, JUNE 4

Wintergreen Fund Will Be Handing Out Trees This Saturday at Three Locations Across The City The Wintergreen Fund for Conservation  with the support of Millson Forestry is pleased to announce that they will be hosting the Annual Arbour Day celebration at three locations across the City; the White Waterfront Conservation Area in South Porcupine, the Mattagami Park in Mountjoy and at the Gillies Lake Conservation Area.  The event will be this Saturday, June 4 from 10 AM to 1 PM.

In addition to the handing out of white spruce seedlings, everyone will be eligible to win one of three bat boxes or one of the new Birds of Timmins posters. As in past years, those picking up trees will be asked for a small voluntary donation. The monies raised will go towards the  many Wintergreen community conservation projects including trails, conservation education and student bursaries.  It should be noted that Muddy Mark will be on hand at the Mountjoy location to answer any questions you may have concerning trees, birds or what you can do to help the environment.

Those wanting more information can contact the Wintergreen Fund
or the Conservation Authority at 360-2660.

Timmins Times article

Last Year Arbour Day

Trees have never been free


oxygengrowsontrees


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Nature Deficit Disorder - have you been touched?

Are you Suffering?

Have you hugged a tree this week?

While driving into the forest the other day a story on CBC radio suggested we suffer from nature deficit disorder. We are are doing well as a species being taken out of the forests. They cited a study that proved young people did better if they were exposed to pine trees. I was driving past a Jack pine plantation with the window open at the time. Lucky me.

We are losing touch with nature, but more important we are losing contact. The smells and fell of the forest is important to human growth. The smell from the pines triggers something in our brains that just makes us more in-touch with our surroundings.

You need to plant a tree close to you, one every year. Why not plant a bonsai, then you can have a tree in your living space year-round. It is not hard. You can order a tree from Millson Forestry Service store in Timmins.

Nature Deficit Disorder links

Nature Canada - blog entry from 2008 describing the disorder
Best Health - What is nature deficit disorder?
PhD in Parenting - Cures for Nature Deficit Disorder? Help for our Planet?
Canadian Living - Quiz: Is your family suffering from nature deficit disorder?
Human Well Being and the Natural World - Just some facts
Canadian Institute of Forestry - Summer Outdoor Camps:  The best remedy for nature deficit disorder
Child and Nature Alliance - Get outside!!
Evergreen.ca -  they need contact with nature
Psychology Today - Exploring the natural world's psychological effects on human beings.
Education.com - The Critical Role of Environmental Education for your Child’s Future
An Interview with Robert Bateman - increasingly popular term among educators

Frogs are Green - definitely what the doctor ordered.

National Environment Week - Take the Nature-Deficit Disorder Survey Here

Trees we see plenty. It is green grass we do not get to see or smell for many months. So every year we grow our own grass in the house. A different container every year. When the kids were smaller we grow a big tray of grass to hide easter eggs in. It is wonderful to smell the grass after a trim with scissors. Looks like my grass is due for a trim this weekend.

Oxygen Grows On Trees

Earth Day 2011 Planning Started

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Muddy Mark and Forester Moe 
Talking Earth Day 2011

It looks like again we will be doing our travelling road show for Earth Day.  At Millson Forestry Service - Earth Day is everyday!

CTV came to the greenhouse to get some film to make the 2011 commercial spots. The greenhouse is an excellent spot to film with tree seedlings as a background. The green house has some seedlings, but it is mostly full of tiny sprouting tree seedlings.

We will be in Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Sudbury and Timmins giving away free tree seedlings. Last year we gave away thousands of tree seedlings that increased the oxygen in Northern Ontario.  You can read more about last years events and see pictures in this blog.

You can see the Timmins Commercial go now or the Regional Commercial go now on youtube.

You can see last years PR and my other videos on my Youtube goforg channel

The 2 trees I have beside me came on the road with us last year. They will come with again. You can see behind me the greenhouse is just starting to turn green. Behind me are thousands of little tree seedlings just getting started.

Stay tuned for more information.

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Scoutrees a Forest for Tomorrow

Forest Planted in 2002 visited

In the spring of 2001 and 2002 the Timmins and Porcupine District Scouts planted as part of Scoutrees. A National program that is a fund raiser for the Scouting program.  The first tree plant in the Timmins District, Called Trees for Canada, at the time, was in 1980. My first tree plant with the Scouts was 1997 when we planted in Deloro Township, just south the Timmins Landfill.

That summer crows and ravens came to the plantation and pulled out almost all the seedlings. Any seedling that had  the smallest paper showing was pulled up. Those curious birds! The seedling container of the time was called a 408 PaperPot. There were used for only a few years before it was determined that in some soil conditions the paper would not rot for many many years.

Previous blog entry has chart with years and numbers planted. read the entry now

The last Scoutrees planted in 2003.

Mine Site in the background.

Click Here to see a map of where the trees are planted.

Pictures from the tree plant and the pictures of what it looks like today.  Look Now

White Pine Do Not Like Salt

White pine have all turned RED along the side of the highway.

Driving north on highway 144 this afternoon I stopped to take a picture of the young white pine that have all turned red.

I noticed the red white pine the last couple of times I have traveled down the highway, I finally stopped to take a picture.

The young red pine seem to be doing much better, but even some of them did not do very well this year. I think it is due to the warmer winter. When it is not really cold salt is used on the highways. I understand that salt is used until the temperature is below -13C. If it is colder then that the salt will not melt the ice and then sand is used. I would guess that much of the winter the highway was above the -13C threshold, thus lots of salt was used.

This is why I tell people in town not to plant white pine close to the road. Eventually the salt will kill the white pine and in many cases the red pine too. The spruce and cedar will do OK and continue to make up the forest along the road sides.

You may say " the Red pine further south on the highway are doing alright". Yes they are. They are much older and a little further back from the road. When they were just young sap(lings) salting the highways was not done that much. Now they are bigger they can take it.

The white pine is the Ontario Arboreal Emblem. If you want your own White pine to plant visit this store, they have Ontario seed sources.

This map shows about where the photo was taken. I did not GPS the location so this is just a guess.

Sudbury Earth Day Event at Rainbow Concrete

Fantastic Earth Day Event at Rainbow Concrete in Sudbury!!

Monique and I left Timmins at 6:30am for Sudbury. We arrived at Rainbow Concrete a little before 10am.

There were people there waiting for their free tree seedling. Some had come earlier and had come back to make sure they did not miss out. Trees really are important to many more people then just Muddy Mark.

We set up in the front of the main office complex. It was a little windy, so we had to make sure everything was well anchored as we constructed the backdrop and display items.

Boris was a gracious host and was on hand to make sure we were able to serve his customers. There was a very steady steam of people all day. We had to leave extra trees, knowing people would still be coming even after we left. I am sure people came the next day to see if there were tree seedling left.

CTV was also on hand to ensure maximum exposure of the event. Muddy thinks it makes him look good when he is seen between two pretty ladies.

CBC radio also came by to talk with Muddy Mark about his emporium items he had brought with him. Burl pedestal, hollow tree truck planter and hollow birch bark.

Stewart was also a great help. He and Forester Moe worked hard to keep up with providing tree seedlings to the steady stream of fellow Earth Day tree planters, while Muddy just talked trees. Once you get Muddy Mark talking about trees it is hard to get him back to work!

Rainbow Concrete, CTV and Millson Forestry Service provided many trees to help the people of Sudbury participate in Earth Day and help green the environment one tree at a time.

Hope they invite us back again next year!

Birch Bonsai start of Winter

We now have snow in Timmins. I think it will stay this time.

My little tree has been outside waiting for the cold. The buds look healthy and the stem is green.

The plan is to leave it outside until it is below -20C then bring it into the house and store in a cool dark place for a little while before bringing it into the heat to start the growth cycle over again.

Day 01 entry

Month 05 entry

You can buy your own tree to make your own bonsai at Millson Forestry Service. If you do not see the species you want let them know and maybe they can start what you want.

Birch Bonsai Ready for Winter

Fall is in the air.

We have had some snow and the leaves have fallen from my white birch. Now I have to make sure it is prepared for the winter.

I have given it fertilizer and it is well watered. It will have to dry down a little to ensure it will not have root rot during the winter.

I usually just put the trees beside the house and cover them in snow. The roots will stay insulated and will not freeze to the -40C temperatures we will have.

This little tree had been in the greenhouse for one year and in a pot for 2 years before that. Next year I hope the bark will start to turn white, just like a mature white birch.

I think I have shaped the tree well and will have to continue the shaping next year.

Think I will get a couple more of these going next year. The yellow birch growing in the greenhouse have become too big too fast to make into bonsai, but they are in great shape to be planted out next spring!

You can always get your own trees to bonsai from the green house. Here is a site I found with some more info., but there is loads of info on the net.

Sudbury is getting Greener - Slowly

Recently I was in Sudbury for a Saturday night, and a Friday night too. I was there for a Regional Local Citizen Committee Conference.

Our field tour on Friday afternoon was to look at the regreening of Sudbury.

Many years ago the mining of Sudbury metals created a ring of destruction around the mining complexes due to pollution coming from the mills.

Since the 1980's the regreening efforts have taken barren lands that could not grow anything and created lands capable of supporting vegetation. It will be many more years before the forest return the Sudbury basin, but at least the effort is being put forward.

Pictured below is what the ground has looked like over the last 50 years with nothing growing except some poor white birch and some mosses. Other picture is of ground that has had lime added to reduce the acid, seeded to grasses and clover and fertilized, then finally trees planted.

The white pine seem to be doing really well on the site. I hope over the long term the area is able to recover to again produce great trees that will create oxygen for all of us!

Do you want to plant your own tree or purchase a tree that will produce oxygen.

Timmins Naturalists and Observations Page

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

Is Potting Tree Planting

The last couple of days I have been working in the greenhouse potting tree seedlings. I like to think of it as tree planting! I am just planting them first, before some else will plant them.

I was planting black spruce and jack pine. In a little more then a month the seedling should be pot bound enough to be planted outside. One day one of these trees may end up on the Timmins Honour Role of Trees as the largest example in the area.

"Pot bound" is when the roots take up enough of the pot that it holds all the soil into a compact ball of roots. When you flip the pot over and remove the pot you can see healthy white root tips, the tree is ready for planting.

White pine were also potted recently, but I was not the one doing it. They look great. Who

ever buys these white pine will be buying the Provincial tree on Ontario. The Arboreal Emblemof Ontario.

Another activity going on in the greenhouse, while I was tree planting, is thinning. In the picture below Annie is thinning. When the seeding machine drops seed into the container sometimes more then one seed lands and germinates. It is important that every container only has one tree seedling. The doubles are removed while the seedlings are still tiny. It is easier to do it before the roots get tangled.

The seedling will grow and become root bound in the container, same as a potted plant only on a smaller scale. The seedling will be removed from the container, with soil encased in roots, to later be planted. In some cases the entire container will go to the field and the tree planter will remove the trees, pack them into their bags and plant them.

Tree Plant on Tailings, Walking on Rock.

This evening the Porcupine Watchfull Eye group meeting was a field trip. I love field trips!

We met on the Carium road to visit the Coniaurum tailings rehabilitation area (map). While we were there we had a tree plant. We planted Jack pine, White spruce, Red pine and White pine.

In the picture we have Larry just finishing up planting a perfect tree - green side up! We also have Larry and Sylvie (Timmins Naturalists Members) plant with Laszlo adding a layer of mulch to help reduce grass competition around the tree. In total another 20 trees have been added to the rehabilitation effort this evening.

These tailing are covered with bio-waste from the Abitibi paper mill, then seeded to grasses, sedges and clovers and I guess what ever else blows in. There is wide variety of plant life greening the landscape.

A little fox is searching the tall grass for little critters to nibble on. No bears this evening. We also visit the site of soon to be bee hives. Last year the bee hives produced honey from the nectar found in the plants on the tailing. The honey turned out great, I am told. I have seen it but not tasted the sweet liquid.

The bears are kept at bay from the honey with the help of a solar powered electric fence. Poor bears.

We leave our little trees in their new home and head for the Simpson Lake trail (map). It is a trail in progress that will follow a path up waste rock to provide the traveler with a great vantage point.

Stuck a Red pine in the eye of the Earth

Look at the shape of the area of poor nutrients. A look from the sky.

It takes the shape of an eye. I first noticed the shape while looking at aerial photography in the early 90's and thought I would take a look at it on the ground. Maybe it just needed more trees to provide shade and stabilitiy.

When with OMNR I took 2 students to plant trees in many differnet places. I have looked at some of the places and the Red pine are taller then I am, but not here. I planted in the eye on the earth with many different people over the years and I know that Denis planted here too with a youth group, I think.

Many trees were put in the eye of the Earth, with the same result for all.

The Red pine in these pictures are the size of a 3 year old tree, but are actually more then 15 years old. Some are really great examples of a bonsia.

White Birch Tar - Do It Yourself

I made birch tar.

I was super surprised how much tar a little bit of birch bark produced.

I stuffed a coffee can full of birch bark. Put it in a fire for an hour and out came about third of a soup can of birch tar. Maybe I am leaving out a few small details about the process, since the entire process would be better described with an entire web page with many pictures. It will follow soon.

The tar was similar to the tar I would put on the bottom of my wooden cross-country skis. Smelled the same and felt the same.

I boiled down the tar until I ended up with more of solid when it cooled. A brittle solid.

Solid birch bark tar.

The huge amount of tar in the bark must be why the wood will rot before the bark. Often I find tubes of birch bark with the wood gone and the bark in good condition.

Look at other posts below and you will see many examples of birch tubes.

Want to have a birch tube of your own, check out this site.

Arbor Day 2009 Yesterday

It was a little cool on Arbor Day, but it would have been perfect if we were actually in the field planting trees.

This year we split up to be in 3 different locations. East end at the water park on Porcupine Lake, Gillies lake and west end at Mountjoy Historic Park. I was at the Mountjoy park with Ben and Kiri.

The last couple of years we have been asking for a donation to cover the cost of the tree seedlings and as a way of raising money for the Wintergreen Fund for Conservation. Millson Forestry Service gives us a very good deal on the trees, but they are not free.

Your donation also got your name entered into a draw for a bat box and a swallow house. Good homes for great bug eaters!

If you missed Arbor day and still want tree seedlings you can get many different sizes and species at the store. Seed soource is important. Trees that come from a local seed source will do better then those that come from a seed source other then here. Trees do not like to move north

, that is why tree seedling from local seed source will always do better then outside sources.

A little more then 1000 white spruce tree seedlings were handed out. That is another 1000 trees going in the ground to help the environment and help keep Timmins beautiful. Many told me they would also plant one at "camp".

"The best time to plant a tree is 100years ago, the second best is today"

Kiri, a Katimavik participant from Nova Scotia has been with us for the week, want to try her hand at creating a bonsai, or maybe she will just plant it here in Timmins before she leaves.