The TNRD will be seeding up to 1,000 hectares of private land within the Elephant Hill Wildfire area this month.

A helicopter will be flying at a low elevations to spread seed over the heavily burned area to combat invasive plant species.

TNRD Invasive Plant management Coordinator Mike Dedels says they’ve set aside a three week period for the seeing, but he is hoping to complete the work within a week.

“It would have been nice to get it done earlier. We just got approval for funding last fall,” he said. “We’re near the end of the window where we’ve got some decent seed bed, so we’re putting this on now with hopes that we can get some seed catch to compete.”

“And we’ve got a couple of different mixes, a dry-land mix and a forest mix depending on the area that we are seeding in.”

Dedels says the reseeding project could cost up to $137,000, and the money is coming from $1-million in funding to the TNRD that the Red Cross announced last year.

“So with the fire we’ve got all the bare soil prone for weed invasion and so we buy aerial seeding and it’s the only practical way to do it over the burned forest and it’s actually cheaper to apply from the air too,” Dedels added.

“We are looking at a fairly intensive program. I’ve contacted numerous landowners and I’m still taking a few names to add onto the list.”

As for why the helicopter is being used, Dedels says it can cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time.

“A lot of the areas are under dead trees so even working under them is a hazard and then a lot of it is on steep ground also, so the access isn’t very good,” he said. “So really the only access is by helicopter.”

“Western Aerial has got a seeder that doesn’t hang down so they can fly fairly low over the trees and get the seed right close to the ground.”

He pointed out that a number of reseeding efforts have already taken place along the highway right of ways and on Crown land.

You can learn more about the program here.