The John Paul II Collegiate Key Club has planted a total of 12,000 trees along the North Saskatchewan River in the last seven years.
"It's great to see the areas we did a few years ago doing so well," says Matthew Houk, Key Club president. "Some trees have gone from pencil-size to over six feet high already!"
The project started seven years ago, under the guidance of teachers Joey Sadlowski and Dennis Mercer and Friday, 36 members of the Key Club continued their "Tree the Valley" by planting over 1,400 trees donated by the Shand Greenhouse.
The Key Club says it's thankful to Keith Anderson, parks and recreation director for the City of North Battleford, for his continued guidance and direction, and to SaskEnergy for their financial support.
The trees have come from the Shand Greenhouse, built in 1991 adjacent to the Shand Power Station near Estevan. It grows approximately 500,000 trees, shrubs and native plants a year, providing seedlings to various Saskatchewan residents and organizations for shelterbelts, wildlife habitat and reclamation projects. The idea behind the greenhouse is to help offset the environmental impact of generating and distributing electricity over a vast territory.
