Shelterbelt planters will be buying plastic mulch next year, now that a four-year program offering the weed control product for free is coming to an end.
“This is the final year,” said Trina Laverdiere, co-ordinator of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration’s shelterbelt enhancement program.
The PFRA Shelterbelt Centre, based in Indian Head, Sask., has been promoting plastic mulch as an alternative to traditional herbicides for four years. Laverdiere said applicants apply for plastic mulch along with their free trees.
The mulch is rolled out immediately after planting and the seedlings are poked through slits in the plastic. The mulch increases soil temperature to speed the growing process.
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Laverdiere said laying the plastic can be labour intensive, but comes with little future maintenance.
“I wish I would be planting right now because I would sure get involved in the mulch program,” said Janet Howden, who applied for free trees from the shelterbelt program in the early 1980s. She planted hundreds of trees to create 11 kilometres of shelterbelt around her home and farmland about 40 km east of Regina.
The centre did not offer free plastic mulch at the time.
“We did some mulching with straw and in some places we found that was not a benefit,” Howden said.
“We tried to stay away from sprays and whatnot, but you know, when it comes to thistle, you have to get out there with something.”
The application deadline for next year’s shipment of plastic mulch was Sept. 30.
While the mulch program may be over, Laverdiere said the trees are still free, and even though the centre is more than a century old, the old rules still apply.
“The stipulation is that the site is prepared and they have to plan on planting at least 800 metres or about half a mile in shelterbelt trees,” Laverdiere said.
Seedlings can only be used on agricultural land spanning more than 39 acres. The program is open to anyone in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. Orders are placed before March 15 and delivered to each location by spring.
“There are limits on some of our species,” Laverdiere said.
The trees are grown at the Shelterbelt Centre on 640 acres of land. Once harvested, the seedlings stay in cold storage until spring delivery.
Lavediere said an average of five million trees are given away on the Prairies each year.
“Everybody wants the fastest growing trees out there,” she said. “There’s a real demand for poplar. We can hardly produce enough for the request.”
Chris Berggren has the same problem. The shelterbelt manager for Alberta Nurseries said demand is strong and supply is barely keeping up. The nursery supplies about 500,000 trees each year, mostly to Alberta residents.
Colorado blue spruce and caragana are the most popular species.
“(Caragana) is an establishment species. It would be the first thing a person would plant on his land if he has nothing there,” Berggren said. “Just to stop the wind, get some snow to stick around, that kind of thing.”
Lombardy poplar, cottonwood and raspberry seedlings were added to the species list this year, he added.
Berggren said the nursery tailored the program toward people with less than 40 acres of land. Unlike the PFRA program, there is a cost.
“There’s no limitations on ours, so some guys would prefer to pay and not have the limitations.”
Berggren said a basic bundle of 10 seedlings are $19.50 while caraganas are $9.50 per bundle.
Rows of trees in shelterbelts reduce soil erosion and energy use by directing wind up and over homes and farmland. The trees also attract wildlife. Howden said they helped with the aesthetics of her land.
“There was this house in the middle of the Prairies and there wasn’t a single tree around it.”
