Orkin Canada Cares Team Plants 350 Trees

MANSFIELD, Ontario, Canada – On May 2, the Orkin Canada Cares team spent the better part of the day getting “down and dirty,” planting more than 350 seedling trees to prevent erosion along the banks of the Pine River.

 

The project was spearheaded by Dale Kurt, Regional Manager of Orkin Canada (greater Toronto) as part of an Orkin Canada Cares initiative. 

 

The idea came to Kurt, an outdoor enthusiast, while attending a presentation given by the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority (NVCA) at his local Cabela’s. As part of that presentation the NVCA representative explained some of the challenges the Pine River was facing. “The problem with this particular river is that it gets flooded a lot from spring run-off and it erodes along the banks, putting a lot of sediment in the water This makes certain areas not as nice, not as good for the fish and wildlife in the area,” said Kurt, who added that the Pine River is an important river that is loaded with spawning rainbow trout, speckled trout and some bass.

 

The goal of this project was to plant trees along the river bank so that the root systems would take hold and prevent future erosion. “So it was planting native trees and shrubs – things like cedar, pine, tamarack and high bush cranberries,” Kurt said. In addition to stopping erosion, the trees provide shade to keep both wildlife and fish stay cool. The trees along the bank will also be home to many insects that will fall into the river and become food for the fish.

 

Twenty two Orkin Canada Care team members — comprised of the vice president of Orkin Canada, branch managers, service managers, an entomologist, sales representatives, service technicians and office representatives — participated in the planting. An NVCA member gave the Orkin Canada Cares team a brief tutorial on how to best plant the seedlings so that they had the greatest chance of survival. “It’s more involved than just digging a hole and dropping it in,” Kurt said.

 

One Orkin Canada Care team objective is to always pick up trash with any project they are involved in, so in addition to planting trees the team also picked up any trash they encountered, which was greatly appreciated by the NVCA representative.

 

Despite the hard work and the next-day soreness, the day was filled with laughter and smiles, Kurt said. “Everybody just got right into it and really enjoyed doing something for the sake of helping the environment and doing something good.”

 

Kurt said the Orkin Canada Care team will be making a return trip in July to the Pine River, where the task will be to anchor unsold Christmas trees into the water along the banks, again with the goal of helping to prevent future erosion.