Walker Road Managed Forest
Information about this Managed Forest
The town of Sackville is a quiet and picturesque town, with only approximately five thousand residents. Sackville is the home to Mount Allison University, often rated as the top undergraduate university in Canada. Sackville is also the hometown of the headquarters for Replant.ca Environmental. Note that due to recent municipal reform, the town is now referred to as Tantramar rather than Sackville.
The property is located at the following geographic location:
Latitude: 45.95191o North
Longitude: 64.41391o West
If using Google Earth or Google Maps to locate the property, type the following coordinates into the search bar of the app: 45.95191, -64.41391
However, Google Maps doesn't quite know how to access the property correctly yet, since the local roads are not known to Google. Here are the exact driving directions: Start by following the TransCanada highway (Highway 2) to Sackville, New Brunswick. Make sure you don't try to navigate to the other Sackville in Nova Scotia. When you are close to Sackville, you're going to take Exit 500 onto Walker Road, which is located roughly four kilometers to the northwest of one of the two main Sackville exits where you can see McDonalds and Tim Hortons. If you're coming from Moncton, Exit 500 onto Walker Road is before you get to the main two Sackville exits. If you're coming from Nova Scotia, the Walker Road exit is past the main two exits. Anyway, once you've taken the Walker Road exit you're going to turn right/south if coming from Moncton or left/south (and under the TCH) if coming from Nova Scotia. Travel for 800m along Walker Road if you're turning off from the TCH eastbound from Moncton (or 1150m if turning off from the TCH westbound from Nova Scotia), then take a right-hand turn onto an unmarked gravel road. This is called the Old Memramcook Highway. By the way, you'll have already passed the town reservoir on your left and the Tantramar Outdoor Club Trailhead approximately 450m before you get to this turn (shortly after the Walker Road changed from asphalt to gravel). Reset your odometer as you turn onto the unmarked Old Memramcook Highway and travel for 1.8km. You'll see the entrance to the property on your left hand side at a sharp ninety degree right-hand curve. Incidentally, as you drove for this last 1.8km, you'll also have gone through one sharp ninety degree turn to the left at the 1.0km mark, where you can actually see the TransCanada through the bushes via a gap along an ATV trail. Here's a map:
The Walker Road Managed Forest is a smaller 40 acre property which was purchased as a multi-use property in 2010, after a local logging company harvested the property in the 1990's. The property was originally intended to be the location for construction of our office complex and aquaculture operations, rather than a demonstration forest. Work was done on this property in 2013 through 2018 to facilitate the construction of access roads. In 2019 and 2020, approximately 10,000 seedlings were scattered throughout portions of this property to enhance diversity. These seedlings were planted to encourage a new understory layer of hemlock, cedar, red oak, sugar maple, white pine, and mountain ash that would grow under (and become integrated with) the existing semi-mature canopy.
In the fall of 2020, we reassessed our long term goal for this property, at a time when Covid restrictions prevented us from crossing the Nova Scotia border to work on other properties. We decided to initiate an intensive program to clean out some of the dead and dying balsam fir on this property. Unfortunately, these unhealthy balsam were quite thick in some places, so progress was slow. We spent about thirty-five days doing this work, which allowed us to successfully clean up almost three acres of the worst areas, where nearly sixty percent of the existing trees had to be removed. Another two acres was cleaned up in the fall of 2021. The rest of the property will be treated in the same manner over the next five years. Most of the rest of the property has less balsam fir, which means that we should be able to make much faster progress as we continue this work. Our long term goal is to turn this property into a public-access demonstration forest for educational purposes.
We hope that any members of the general public who visit this project will appreciate the forests which are currently established, along with the new young seedlings that are being planted. The property currently contains red maples, sugar maple, white birch, yellow birch, black cherry, white pine, red spruce, balsam fir, trembling aspen, balsam poplar, eastern hemlock, and several other species.
Here are some photos of this property:
We've arrived for a visit!
One of several branches of the road system leading into the heart of the property.
An extensive permanent road network (approximately four thousand feet so far) was added to the property by a professional local construction firm, with work being completed in 2018.
This is the start of one of the walking trails on the property.
We have excellent access throughout this property.
The start of planning for another walking trail.
Members of the public will eventually be welcome to visit our demonstration forest properties. While every effort is made to ensure the timeliness and accuracy of the information and documents presented on this site, Replant.ca Environmental and its Directors and Officers assume no liability or responsibility for the completeness, accuracy or usefulness of any of the Information. Information (including any revisions and updates) on this site is provided solely for general public information purposes and is provided strictly on an "as is" basis. Visitors to any of our properties do so at their own risk, and agree that neither Replant.ca Environmental nor its Directors or Officers shall be held liable for any injuries or damages to persons or properties as a result of public visits. By visiting one of our properties, all persons accept that there may be risks and safety hazards found upon all properties, which can include but are not limited to: Uneven trail footing, sharp sticks, stumps, inclement weather, dangerous animals (including bears, moose, and coyotes), running and still water, unstable trees, overhead hazards, trip hazards, dehydration, allergens, noxious plants, damage to personal belongings, and the possiblity of getting lost. Visitors to our properties will do their best to minimize and mitigate any potential hazards, and prepare themselves accordingly for visits to our properties, which includes the use of proper footwear, clothing and outerwear that is appropriate for all weather conditions, the potential use of insect repellents, and proper supervision of any children or minors that accompany you to the sites. Visitors to our properties are not allowed to cut trees, and out of respect for the environment and for future visitors, we request that you carry out all garbage that you bring to the site. The use of ATV's, snowmobiles, and other motorized vehicles is restricted in some areas, as per posted signs.
At the present time, until trail building work is complete, we ask that members of the public do not use our sites without requesting a free tour accompanied by one of the members of our organization. This is to help ensure that visitors do not unwitting expose themselves to hazards on site. Our trail systems are currently incomplete, and we are prohibiting motorized traffic from these trails due to the presence of sharp stumps and other dangers. Contact us at any time to request a tour!