The caribou heads on Cariboo cans have been counted. The numbers are in and more than 18,000 trees will be planted in the local region next year based on beer sales.
Pacific Western Brewing has for years attached the sales of their Cariboo line of beers to reforestation. This past summer the local manufacturer focused on replanting the areas devastated by the season's wildfires. For each purchase of a six-pack under the Cariboo title (Genuine Draft, Blonde, Honey, Light and Malt) in the month of September, PWB earmarked 25 cents for buying seedlings.
Sales of the Cariboo line went up 20 per cent this year over last, largely attributed to the silviculture campaign, said a PWB representative.
"The tally of September sales figures is finally complete and the results are fantastic. We will be able to plant 18,640 trees in 2018," said PWB's sales manager Scott Rattee.
"The brewery has contracted with Smithers-based Summit Reforestation to begin planting trees in the spring."
"I have always believed our brewery should invest where we live and tree planting has been an important element of that giving since 2010," said Kazuko Komatsu, PWB's owner.
"The reforestation program is one of my core commitments to the community and will endure for years to come."
Komatsu said it was gratifying to see the customers of Cariboo seize the opportunity to help in the initiative. More than a million hecatares of B.C. forests were burned by this summer's record-breaking blazes. Komatsu said the Cariboo campaign couldn't erase such a massive disaster but "in a modest yet significant way (these 18,640 trees will) help B.C. grow its way back from this summer's terrible fires."
