Volunteers at the Elmira Nature Reserve have been hard at work planting enough trees to make even Johnny Appleseed jealous.
What was once an empty swath of neglected scrubland adjacent to the town’s eastside industrial area is steadily being transformed into the Elmira Nature Reserve. The initiative spearheaded by Trees for Woolwich is looking to see 5,000 trees planted each year in the township.
Trees for Woolwich got a jump on this year’s target by planting 300 trees over the course of last weekend, with volunteers working in groups to maintain COVID-19 safety.
Included in the group of volunteers this past weekend was Liberal MP for Kitchener-Conestoga Tim Louis and his daughter Brooklyn.
“I’m just a volunteer,” said Louis.
“This idea is just fantastic. It fits right in line with what our government wants to do [which] is to preserve the environment. And it just builds community,” said Louis.
The federal government has committed to planting two billion trees over the next 10 years, and just this month announcing it had received 120 applications from organizations looking to take part in early tree planting this year. That intake represents some 30 million trees.
Mark Schwarz, the project manager for the Elmira Nature Reserve and president at Earthscape, echoed those sentiments of community outreach and involvement.
“It’s an incredibly exciting opportunity,” said Schwarz. “This has been a great chance to involve the community, local businesses, my own business, but other businesses too and professionals in design, installation and maintenance of a major park.”
Last weekend’s planting effort was the largest of the year for Trees for Woolwich, with volunteers planting saplings in the tree nursery at a rate which surpassed organizer’s expectations.
“Today was ahead of schedule. So people worked harder than we thought and got more trees in,” said Schwarz. “This is our big planting day for the year. But [for] the rest of the year we’re doing lots of other things like maintaining the prairie, pruning trees and watering trees.”
Planting 300 trees may seem a tall task for most, but for Trees for Woolwich chair Inga Rinne, the hard part comes after getting them in the ground.
“The really big issue is not getting the trees planted. It’s keeping them alive,” said Rinne. “They need to be watered, especially since it’s been really dry this spring.”
As progress continues in the Elmira Nature Reserve, organizers such as Schwarz are looking ahead to the next project on the tree lined horizon.
“Working at the habitats is the core of the Elmira Nature Reserve, But, next, we’ve got another area north, that’s another six or eight acres,” said Schwarz. “It’s an invasive species nightmare. So that’s our next job, after we’re done.”
