Michael Yellowlees takes a break in Seven Persons on Monday as he makes his way walking across Canada in support of a charity to reforest Scotland.--NEWS PHOTO ALEX MCCUAIG
The lush green rolling hills of Scotland and the dry sage-covered shortgrass prairie don’t have a lot in common except they both are largely devoid of trees. But a Scotsman is seeking to change the former by travelling across the latter.
Micheal Yellowlees and his dog Luna left Vancouver Island at the beginning of March on the path to walk across Canada to assist Scottish charity Trees for Life in replanting the highland forests of his native land.
As he stopped Monday morning at Seven Persons’ Premium Sausage, the kilt-wearing Yellowlees said he picked Canada for the target of his efforts to “tie into that Canada, Scottish history to encourage people to give back to their ancestral home.”
Yellowlees said the deforestation of Scotland has left the country with a “broken landscape,” and he hopes to build on the $10,000 he’s raised so far as he makes his way east at a pace of about 40 kilometres a day.
“Hopefully, I’m making a little bit of a difference,” said Yellowlees, who says Canadians have been extremely generous to the charity he’s raising money for and himself personally.
Yellowlees will be leaving Medicine Hat today and is expected to reach Walsh by this evening.
