Ulkatcho First Nation has embarked on a mission to plant more than one million trees over the next seven years. With funding from the Two Billion Trees, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Forest Employment Program and the Caribou Habitat Restoration Fund, 200,000 trees will be planted each year in the nation’s traditional territory until they reach their target. Alysha Knapp, the nation’s natural resources manager, said over the last 40 to 50 years the area has been heavily harvested by forestry. “In the last 10 years, we have been devastated by forest fires as well, and lost almost 40 per cent of our territory to forest fires.” This year they are also experiencing 60 to 70 per cent drought conditions. With the project, she said the nation will have the ability to plant what it wants where it wants and put biodiversity back into the landscape to help retain moisture in the ground.