Rebuilding Canada s Forests After Wildfire. A Movement for Future Generations.

This is more than a project. It's the start of a movement, a journey, one tree at a time. We've all seen the fires, the loss, the devastation, but now it's time to rebuild. Together with Tellus Environmental Solutions, Antomas is launching one of the most ambitious citizen-driven restoration missions in Canada. It's a partnership with First Nation communities to restore the land with their knowledge, their leadership, and their vision. Restoring ecosystems, saving species, protecting culture, identity, and future generations. After a wildfire, people often think that nature just heals itself, and it does to a point, but what we're seeing in Fox Creek tells a different story. The fire burns so hot now, and without intervention, the forest changed forever. I spent a lot of my career working directly in the forest industry, but not truly getting the chance to do what I'm doing now, and really put my passion to practice. Tellus has given me an open playing field to dream ideas, which is something I've never had in my whole career. To be told, whatever you can dream up, we can do it. So it's just kind of a personal thing to me. Replanting after fire supports wildlife like woodland caribou, grizzly bears, and trumpeteer swans. We follow bioengineering principles when needed, like planting alongside erosion control structures, or restoring riverbanks with native cottonwoods. Whether it's one tree or a million trees, everybody that contributes is doing a lot of good for the environment, because we put that towards all elements of the project. This isn't symbolic. It's real, tangible, and it lasts. My house was washed away in 1995 by a massive, catastrophic flood. We have species that disappeared when the environment changed. If you've ever cleaned off your driveway or your sidewalk using the hose, it just washes everything away. Well, that's what happened here, and it just washed everything away. Topsoil, riparian animals, everything was totally displaced. We're making lots of phone calls to Indigenous communities looking for partnerships and also programs that would help build the communities. And so this project here, I'm excited to see where it's going to go. The seedlings, the monitoring that's going to be done. I'm hoping and praying that there's going to be success, and to show the next generation that during my time as chief, we're able to look at what had happened and to try and correct. For the future. And we don't just plant and walk away. We monitor, we measure survival, and we work with communities to make sure those trees thrive. Microforests and shelter belts across the prairies reduce wind erosion, improve water retention, and increase biodiversity on farmland. The forest isn't just the large trees that you see, it's the feather moss at the bottom, the mid-tier system where you get the squirrels, nuthatches, and chickadees. And then there's the canopy where you get certain types of warblers way up at the top that we may never see with the naked eye, but they're up there. Then the next most important step is the seed. The seeds are hand collected by community members or elders, and grown in a nursery. Sometimes they come from mother trees that have survived the fires. Planting on these projects holds a very deep value and meaning. It's so much more than a job. Our projects combine Indigenous knowledge with modern bioengineering to heal land that's been devastated by floods, erosion, and fire. Come and see us. I know it's a great opportunity for a number of our people. We're trying to restore the environment, combat climate change, and do what's best for communities and nature. With every tree you sponsor, you're planting hope where it's needed the most. This is not carbon offsetting. We're not selling credits. We're restoring real forest with real impact. Now it's your turn.