Loon Lake, B.C., resort asks people to replant wildfire-damaged region with live Christmas trees
"Instead of moaning and griping and complaining about 'woe is me' — do something positive"
The owner of Marigold Resort at Loon Lake, B.C., wants people to ditch the cut Christmas tree for a potted one this year.
This summer, the Elephant Hill wildfire swept through the community and destroyed 40 homes.
"It's been a tough year," said resort owner, Linda Lennox.
"It's still beautiful in lots of areas and there's lots of areas that are completely annihilated."
For the last few months, she's been thinking about how to restore the area and decided planting trees is one way to tackle the devastation.
"Even if 50 people or a 100 people did it and even if only half survive, it's still 25 or 50 more trees than we have right now," Lennox said.
'Do something positive'
She has made the ask through a Facebook post and already there have been people responding with questions and messages of support.
"In fact, a couple of people had commented this was a great idea far exceeding just Loon Lake because so many areas were impacted," said Lennox.
She hopes her message has planted a seed in people's minds to do something to help the area recover.
"Instead of moaning and griping and complaining about 'woe is me' — do something positive."
Lennox suggests people make sure they pick trees that can survive in a Zone 2 or 3 climate similar to Loon Lake's.
Forest ecologist John Karakatsoulis says there won't be issues planting Christmas trees in the region as long as people choose trees that already grow in the region. He suggests Douglas fir and Lodgepole pine as good choices.
Live Christmas trees are available at a number of locations in the Lower Mainland and are sometimes available at grocery stores like Save-on-Foods
With files from Radio West