Planting project at Nickle Lake will keep future generations in the trees

Anyone who has visited Nickle Lake Regional Park over the past six weeks or so may have noticed the baby trees all throughout the park.

This is because 574 trees were planted in early June as part of a replacement project for future generations.

Park Manager Darren Wheeler said the trees are between three feet and 12 feet tall, with 160 Maple trees in four different varieties, 200 hybrid Poplar trees, 120 Ash trees and 25 pine trees.

"I took it to the board last fall that we have to get something rolling, so and they approved this," he shared. 

Last fall, he noted, they had to remove close to 90 big trees altogether.

"About 40 of them were Dutch Elm Disease, and the rest were just these old cottonwoods that are just lifed out and rotten so we put it all to mulch, or most of it," he explained

Wheeler said they are not planting any more Cottonwood trees, which create a 'fluff' that can be a nuissance in its own way for campers.

"The long-term plan is to continue probably 100 to 200 and a year for the next number of years, just to replace some of the old trees that are at the end of their life."

He said for every tree they remove, he'd like to see two more planted, if not more. 

"We've got to look for the next generation, too," he told. "We're not planting them for ourselves. Right now we're planting for the kids and grandkids."  

The work to plant the trees was done by park staff, including Wheeler, along with Brian Schmidt and Rob McLeod, and volunteers Juliet and Gene.

The park staff are also watering the trees using a water truck three to four days each week.

"It's been so dry, we've just been hauling continually to them, making sure they're getting the water they need. If we'd been getting rains we'd probably go down to once a week or something just to top them off, but they're dry within a day. These big old trees are just sucking the water up," he said, adding the felled poplars are making their attempts at a comeback already.

The trees can be seen all throughout the park, with the newest campground, Crescent Point, expected to one day have an 'entrance arch' not unlike Saskatchewan Drive in Weyburn.

Photo taken in early June when the trees arrived (photo courtesy of Nickle Lake Regional Park 2023 /Facebook).

Photo courtesy of Nickle Lake Regional Park 2023 /Facebook.