Dedicated tree planters beautify rural roadways with 22,000 trees
Day by day, a group of dedicated tree-planters are greening Woolwich Township with 22,000 new trees.
Their plan is to restore epic, beautiful trees along Woolwich’s rural roadways. The ambitious idea comes from Trees for Woolwich, a group of volunteers passionate about increasing tree cover for their community.
These trees are a long-term investment that will pay off many years from now, by providing shade, beauty and natural habitat for birds, bugs and other creatures.
Their goal aligned with the Region of Waterloo, where staff are also working to make roadways more green and natural, and invest in trees that will capture carbon and benefit us for years to come. It’s one way the Region is working to achieve “Climate aligned growth.”
To support this community project, the Region of Waterloo is giving them access to roadside regional lands. Staff survey and mark the area ahead of the planting team. The Region also communicates with neighbouring landowners.
Next comes a small team of four or five people, planting 300+ trees per day, rain or shine. Maples are the most common, but 12 other native species are also going in the ground, including oak, pincherry, chokecherry and Kentucky coffeetree, depending on location and conditions.
The work crew includes youth from Sunnydale who join the project, gaining work experience.
When this idea first sprouted several years ago, planting 22,000 trees was going to cost $3 million. The community group didn’t have those kinds of funds. But the project survived thanks to local landscaper Mark Schwarz, who used his professional expertise to create a quicker, more affordable way to plant. The efficient system plants small seedlings, only a few inches tall but protected from hungry animals in a plastic sheath. The entire project now costs about $330,000, or $15 per tree. Schwarz is managing the project.
“It’s a pretty cost effective way to mitigate climate change,” laughs Inga Rinne, chair of Trees for Woolwich.
Community partnerships are key. Local businesses like Wallenstein Feed, the Madison Group, and Earthscape have committed to funding. Individuals are donating money too, or volunteering time to help plant or organize the project. The Township of Woolwich helped the group plant on township roads, and now Region of Waterloo is onboard too.
This is already the most ambitious roadside tree planting project in Ontario in 120 years, Rinne says. If it works well, it could be scaled up and used in other townships too, she added.
