{"id":690960,"date":"2026-05-24T16:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T16:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/690960\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T16:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T16:57:12","slug":"this-northern-sask-community-lost-its-trees-to-a-fire-volunteers-replanted-more-than-30000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/690960\/","title":{"rendered":"This northern Sask. community lost its trees to a fire. Volunteers replanted more than 30,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Large-scale tree planting isn\u2019t a common pastime for cottage-goers.<\/p>\n

But in the past two weeks, Nathan Pitka and his neighbours have gone through more than 30,000 seedlings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s backbreaking work for sure,\u201d he told CBC Saskatchewan’s The 306 in an interview.<\/p>\n

Last summer Pitka lost his five cabins to a wildfire that ravaged the East Trout Lake region, a heavily wooded area 250 km northeast of Saskatoon. The community lost about 57 cottages and permanent homes between May 26 and 28, 2025.<\/p>\n

Seeing no immediate government plans to replant the foliage, Pitka, a Calgary resident, didn\u2019t want to wait.<\/p>\n

He emailed companies and the provincial government to coordinate support and moved into a rented cabin to get started once the frost melted.<\/p>\n

LISTEN | East Trout Lake residents plant trees after wildfire devastation:<\/p>\n

The 3066:28East Trout Lake residents plant trees after wildfire devastation<\/p>\n

Nathan Pitka, a cabin owner in East Trout Lake, Sask., joins The 306 to talk about planting more than 30,000 trees after wildfire destruction last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cResidents, including myself, felt quite overwhelmed with the scale of loss, and so I started looking into what it would actually take to begin restoring some of the public areas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The neighbours consulted experts on the correct species of trees: white spruce, birch, tamarack, aspens, and \u201ca lot of native shrubs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He emailed various government and corporate programs, who provided money and seedlings. The provincial government cleared the area and connected him with other organizations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Pitka says covering 40 hectares was rooted in the efforts of everyday people.<\/p>\n

\"AGovernment and corporate initiatives provided Pitka with equipment. (Submitted by Nathan Pitka)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe volunteers themselves played a huge, huge role in terms of their time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the fire destroyed 1,500 trees per hectare, the neighbours expect to plant 800 for each hectare, hoping it will make the area more fire-resistant.<\/p>\n

‘Rebuilding stages’<\/p>\n

Nic Swiderski fondly remembers was the area was like before the fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fantastic. It was the place everyone went to get away from the hustle and bustle of life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He and his father \u2014 who is one of the only year-round residents \u2014 lost their homes in the fire. The government cleared out trees from populated locations to prevent the fire from returning, so the main area is still treeless one year later.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was a beautiful, nicely treed northern Saskatchewan forest with roads and homes is just a mile by mile barren piece of sand in the middle of the bush,\u201d Swiderski said.<\/p>\n

The trees will take decades to reach the height of the previous ones, but he\u2019s optimistic about his community\u2019s efforts to rebuild it, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been absolutely fantastic and great to see \u2026 the initial shock and anger has kind of worn off and everybody is in the rebuilding stages right now.”<\/p>\n

Pitka said he plans to finish the job in the next two years, and he expects his own cottage will be repaired by August.<\/p>\n

But he acknowledges East Trout Lake\u2019s revival is largely out of his hands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe major strategy is to count on Mother Nature.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-690960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}