MacPhail Woods moves from protection to restoration

P.E.I.s MacPhail Woods Ecological Forestry Project is taking a step forward in its management of the Islands forests.

A new project calledRestore an Acreaims to move the group beyond its traditional role in caring for about 800 hectares of the provinces forest land.

"We kind of came up with the idea last winter, said forest manager Daniel McRae.

There's various adopt an acre programs, and we realized that we wanted to kind of take that one step further and not just protect and conserve, but actually restore the forests that we manage for the province.

Under the restoration project, an area of forest will be culled for invasive species, pruned and improved, and then planted with native species. MacRae said the group is now focusing on a section of 90 hectares on the Selkirk Road.

The MacPhail Woods project is currently looking for individuals, families and businesses to donate $200 to restore a single acre (0.4 hectares) of forest. MacRae said the project could be expanded to restore more land if there's enough public interest.