[Ethan Braund]

With survivability the name of the game, ReForest Woolwich (RW) planted more than 800 trees Monday as part of its mission to increase the tree canopy in the township.

The group is now well underway in their goal to plant 200,000 trees over the next 10 years. The RW team was planting in and around the St. Jacobs off-leash dog park and an area near the St. Jacobs wastewater treatment plant.

[Submitted]

Reforest Woolwich’s effort to increase the township’s tree cover will get a boost later this spring when the group hands out some 900 trees.

The goal is to have homeowners plant and care for the trees of various species as the organization works to double the size of the tree canopy.

The giveaway is set for May 10.

“People would get a little upset if you randomly plant things in their lawn. So, the best way to do it (plant trees in an urban setting) is to offer free trees to residents within the township, and then they can plant them where they want. They have access to our forest stewards,” explained Jessica Peever of Reforest Woolwich (RW).

Residents can contact one of the five forest stewards in their area about the species and quantity they want. Stewards can also help with the best possible planting areas and what trees work for your property and soil type.

Among the trees available are sugar maples, red maples, paper birch, flowering dogwood, Kentucky coffee tree and white pine.

Trees can be picked up at forest stewards’ homes or “drop locations” any time on May 10 from 9:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can contact your area stewards if you can’t pick up on this day.

“They can help with what sort of species would be ideal for what it is that the homeowner, if they’re looking for more privacy, or they’re looking for just a little bit more shade in the backyard, or if they’re looking for helping to reduce their air conditioning costs in the summer,” said Peever.

This giveaway is free, with urban landowners allowed up to 10 trees, and rural owners 50 trees.

Planting trees has many positives, like cooling your property during the summer and increasing your property value, with RW estimating mature trees can increase property values by $25,000 per tree.

“One of the best reasons is because being close to nature and having a green doorway near you has been proven to increase mental health and improve it,” said Peever.

Carbon capture, increased biodiversity and decreased stormwater runoff are a few more reasons to plant trees on your property.

Due to the limited number of trees, people who do not order in time or will not be in town on pickup day can watch for Trees for Woolwich’s giveaway in the fall. Residents can contact Ann Roberts at Woolwich Township for more details: [email protected]

For more information on the upcoming tree giveaway or Reforest Woolwich itself, contact them at [email protected].

Volunteers from Reforest Woolwich are planting trees inside the prairie potholes of the Elmira Nature Reserve. [Submitted]

ReForest Woolwich (RW) is the newest tree planting initiative in the township, with plans to add 200,000 trees over the next 10 years.

“I joined Trees for Woolwich, a volunteer organization, in 2000, and we started doing a wide variety of larger and larger projects, ending with the latest roadside tree project, 67 acres of roadside trees, adding to the 800 acres at final count, with canopy coverage,” said RW director Mark Schwarz. “Then, we had more ideas and had to do trials to choose which ones, from which we realized we needed to set up a separate organization to do it to streamline the project.”

RW is unique from its predecessors by incorporating not-for-profit and hired staff; it is funded privately and have $1.25M in funding from Earthscape Catalyst, a social enterprise. That approach is unique from other organizations because they are typically volunteer and municipally funded.

The new initiative would bring together various government and community funding sources through local businesses and corporate funding, hoping to bring in federal monies through grants such as those available through the 2 Billion Trees program.

“It’s not just finding the funding for this, or finding the staffing, the resourcing, the organizing, trying to figure out where these trees need to go, but also, where do we find the planters? How do we know if people have the expertise? How will the trees be planted so that they survive? How can they be protected from the elements,” said Kevin Thomason, another of ReForest Woolwich’s directors.

“So, it’s kind of like birthing a child. There’s a long-term commitment here, and this is where we’re trying to assemble that all-star team to ensure that for the years ahead, we get our community where it needs to be and get the long-term stewardship that’s needed as well.”

Starting in April 2025, RW plans to plant 13,000 trees in the first year and then scale up to 22,000 or 23,000 in years after. ReForest Woolwich invites the community to its first tree planting on April 1. Though they do not have a location for the first tree planting, they hope to hit the ground running, said Schwarz.

As part of their team, they will split the township into 25 to 30 zones and assign a forest steward to each area. The steward will be responsible for locating areas to plant these trees and looking after them once they are in the ground.

Having 20 to 25 native species of trees to choose from, these stewards will play a major role in making sure they are dispersed in the right way for sustained success, said Schwarz.

Raising the forest canopy coverage in the township comes with many benefits, said Jessica Peever, an ecologist with ReForest Woolwich.

Habitat restoration and climate adaptation are two of the biggest upsides of more coverage. The lack of trees creates a lack of habitats in semi-urban spaces. But really, there is no one right answer to why canopy coverage is so important.

“Esthetics is sort of a side effect of it. I would say there’s a lot of habitat fragmentation due to development and urban sprawl. So, I’d say that’s one of the more important things, as is biodiversity. Those things will help make everything much more adaptable to the changing climate,” said Peever.

Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich / Unsplash

Commitment from private landowners, from residential homes to industrial sites, will be needed to significantly boost the tree cover in Woolwich, say the organizers of a new initiative aimed at doing just that.

Looking to double the canopy by 2070 from just over 16 per cent today will require the township not only to be onboard, but to promote the goal to all residents, Woolwich Environmental Advisory Committee (WEAC) member Rebecca Schwarz told councillors meeting Tuesday night.

WEAC earlier this summer embraced a the creation of ReForest Woolwich, urging council this week to direct staff to prepare a report to assess the long-term impacts of this project, both benefits and costs.

The project would bring together efforts such as those by Trees for Woolwich, which is heavily involved in planting new trees, including the Bring Back the Maples plan to plant approximately 22,000 trees along the township’s 300 kilometres of roadside to replace the centuries’ old roadside trees that are beginning to fail from old age, and to increase the forest canopy.

“ReForest Woolwich is an initiative put forward by a group of concerned and driven residents and green industry professionals to realistically and methodically increase the tree canopy cover in all urban areas in the township of Woolwich from roughly 16.3 per cent to 32 per cent by 2070. This will mean a concentrated effort to plant extensively and quickly in the next 15 years to allow for tree maturity by 2070. This will be done by bringing together corporate, municipal, non-profit and citizen volunteer efforts in the same way that was spearheaded by the Roadside Tree Planting Project,” reads the WEAC report

The goal is to “aggressively plant trees,” said Schwarz, noting reaching the goal would require homeowners, for instance, to join in the effort on their own properties, particularly in the urban areas.

Coun. Kayla Grant, a member of WEAC, said industrial land is a focus, as such sites are often rather sparsely covered by trees.

In response to a question from Coun. Eric Schwindt about the target number, Schwarz said the 30 per cent coverage is not a random number, but reflects the levels of well-forested areas such as London, Ont., which is approaching the 30 per cent level, in keeping with its moniker as the forest city.

The ReForest Woolwich project would see the establishment of a non-profit charity. Costs are project at $5 million, of which WEAC says $1,250,000 has already been committed, with another $750,000 expected in matching funds from the federal government.