In an effort to slow down further erosion, the Sault Ste. Marie Regional Conservation Authority is going to plant some trees on Landslide Hill.
"We wanted to do it on Earth Day but it's too cold and there is too much snow to plant trees then," said Deane Greenwood, the authority's trails coordinator. "So we are planning to do it in May."
Greenwood said the authority has a chance to use about 2,500 seedlings to be donated from the Trees Ontario Foundation and staff feels they'd help stabilize the hill once they take root.
"The old ski hill is in terrible shape and the slope itself is highly unstable because of water erosion," Greenwood said. "Trees growing there would help to stabilize the soil."
Greenwood reported that the initiative to plant trees on the hill was put together with Brent Atwell of REGEN Forestry, a forest management and investment company.
"We're planning to plant them on an area of conservation authority land about 1.25 hectares or three acres in size," he said. "It will be jack pine, red pine and white pine trees."
Details have yet to be confirmed, Greenwood said, but the plan is to plant with Boy Scouts of Canada volunteers on May 12 and then with high school biomass volunteers in conjunction with Upper Lakes Environmental Research Network (ULEARN) on May 23 and 24.
Greenwood said he thinks the ski hill will never be a ski hill again because it would be too expensive to upgrade it and there are too many alternative skiing locations nearby to justify the expense.
"We really have to think about stabilizing this slope and we have an opportunity to do that now," he said.
The coservation authority directed its staff to go ahead with the project and conduct a telephone poll for final permission when details are worked out.
It also directed staff to assess needed repairs and estimate costs to repair current erosion damage on the slope outside of the area where trees will be planted.
