National Forest Week is an annual celebration to highlight the important role forests play in our environment and economy, and it ran from September 20 to 26 this year. National Tree Day, observed on each Wednesday of National Forest Week, focuses on the value of trees, particularly in an urban setting.
“Saskatchewan’s forests are a valuable, renewable natural resource,” Environment Minister Herb Cox said. “National Forest Week is a time for us all to reflect on the many ways forests and trees add to our quality of life, in our communities and in the natural environment.”
This year’s theme is ‘Wildland Fire: You can make a difference!’ and is especially appropriate in light of Saskatchewan’s unprecedented 2015 wildfire season. The season illustrated in dramatic fashion the power of wildfires to affect people’s lives, as well as the positive results of proactive community protection projects. Wadin Bay, named Saskatchewan’s first FireSmart community earlier this year, developed and implemented a protection plan to address its wildfire risks, and that work proved invaluable to those protecting the community this summer when it was threatened by wildfire.
“Saskatchewan’s boreal forests have adapted over millennia to include wildfire as a natural agent of change and renewal,” Cox said. “Wildfires are powerful, but people can make a difference to their impacts by preventing human caused wildfires and taking steps to protect their communities and property before wildfire happens.”
