Like a number of other environment-conscious heavy users of wood, Canstar Sports Group has decided to put back into the ground more than it takes out.
Canstar, which makes Bauer Supreme hockey sticks, has pledged to plant one tree for every 25 Supreme sticks sold worldwide bearing the Bauer New Forest logo.
Eileen Tobey, a spokeswoman for Canstar, says some planting has already begun.
Canstar is planting white ash seedlings, the wood preferred for hockey sticks because of its hardness and moderate weight, and some maple and spruce.
20,000 seedlings
Working with Trees Ontario, set up by Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ontario Forestry Association, Canstar will plant about 20,000 seedlings on 20 hectares of privately owned land in Essex, Ont.
Southwestern Ontario was chosen for the planting because of its moderate climate and soil.
Manufacturers produce nearly five million hockey sticks a year in Canada, using almost 7,000 tons of cured wood from 15,000 tons of logs.
The one-piece hockey stick is a Canadian discovery.
William Hilborne, owner of the American Plough Works in Ayr, Ont., found, just after the turn of the century, the machine he used for making rock elm plough handles could also be used to make sticks.
