The federal government is providing over $100 million to help return unproductive Alberta farmland to its original forested state.
Corey Hogan, parliamentary secretary to Canada’s natural resources minister, says the cash is part of the $3.2 billion 2 Billion Trees program and the reforestation will help capture carbon and reduce greenhouse gases.
The goal is to support provinces, territories and third-party organizations in planting two billion trees across Canada by 2031.
Hogan says cleared farmland will be turned back into thriving forests, providing employment to Indigenous women and youth, and providing economic benefits.
Mike Toffan from Project Forest says through four different projects, 12 million trees will be planted in Alberta, including on the Siksika Nation and in the Peace Country.
He says some of the land goes back well over a century, when a quarter section was offered to settlers to encourage settlement in the Prairies.
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“In some of those cases, the original farmers were farming the land, weren’t able to make an economic go and the next generation didn’t take that on,” Toffan said Monday.
“So going back to 1912 and in some cases prior to that, land was cleared in areas, not able to produce economic crops and those are perfect cases to bring forests back.”
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