As people moved into the Summer Village of Gull Lake, they cut down the overmature trees.

Those old trees could fall and damage houses, so they had to go.

But villagers realized that those unwanted trees served a purpose in the ecosystem. It was inside holes in the trunks that birds, bats and bees would make their homes and breed.

Cam McTavish, a biologist and resident of Gull Lake, says the decline of these animals has an impact on humans. Bats keep the insect population under control and are capable of eating hundreds of them in a single hour, he says. And as it’s been increasingly well-known, bees serve as pollinators, crucial agents in food production.

As the trees went, so did the wildlife.

To reverse that trend, McTavish, his wife Sharon, along with Sharon Williamson and Nick Harper have been installing wildlife houses in Gull Lake since 2014. It’s turned into a community-wide effort, and reflects residents’ changing attitudes towards environmental stewardship.

“In the old days, people changed the oils in their car and took the oil out the back and just dumped it into the trees or threw it on the fence posts. Of course, that all leaks into the water system,” McTavish says.

“I think everybody’s got the right attitude now. I think people are understanding that we’re not just here by ourselves and other animals and plants have a place.”

Every year, McTavish and the Gull Lake Community League receive a $2,000 environmental improvement grant from Lacombe County that they can spend on supplies and materials. Local businesses chip in as well, by offering discounts on birdhouses or educational signs that accompany them.

Biologist and Gull Lake resident Cam McTavish says living near the lake requires a strong environmental ethic. As the lake recedes, he says there's a need to protect the sensitive riparian area.

Tim DeVries, the village foreman, is one of those on board.

He’s mindful of the products he chooses when doing his job. For example, the village has some benches on the beach that need to be painted. DeVries uses a hemp-based paint he can apply right on the beach without worrying about contaminating the environment.

DeVries says that choice also means he doesn’t have to use a tractor to haul the benches into the shop, reducing his carbon footprint.

McTavish hopes that surrounding communities adopt the same kind of thinking.

He says there are about 150 lots in the village, each one hosting three to five houses for bats and birds. That’s about 450 houses.

“We think we have the highest density of bird houses in central Alberta and we challenge every other village to come up to our expectation of an average of three bird houses per family. A friendly competition,” he says.

“We’d have a lot birds, a lot of bats would be produced, (we’d have) a better ecosystem as a result.”

However, the Gull Lake ecosystem does face a growing problem with invasive plant species.

One of them is a hardy plant called sea buckthorn. McTavish says it’s been prolific in Aspen Beach and has spread to Gull Lake, colonizing the riparian area.

Even though the plant produces a “highly-nutritious” berry, he says nothing eats it because animals can’t get past the thorns.

The only solution McTavish can think of is to cut down as much sea buckthorn as possible but even then, that would only control its growth, not stop it.

And that has got him stumped.

“Something’s got to happen or we’re going to lose a huge pile of our natural diversity. We have at least eight species of orchids in the Summer Village of Gull Lake that we’re aware of and we’re going to lose all those orchids if the sea buckthorn keeps going.”