65,000 native trees to be planted in Windsor-Essex region soon

Upwards of 65,000 native trees are expected to be planted in Windsor-Essex this year by the Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA) with the spring planting season about to get underway.

Essex County only has about 8.5 per cent tree canopy coverage according to ERCA officials who say it’s a struggle to increase that number due to the region’s geographic size.

“We have a very robust tree planting program,” said Paul Giroux, ERCA’s Forester. “It's almost like it's never enough because it's such a large region here and there's so much opportunity to plant trees. We couldn't collect enough seed even if we had a magic wand and we could plant thousands of acres a year.”

Giroux said there are currently 25 spring planting projects underway thanks to partnerships with landowners in each municipality.

“It's such a large area that it's just going to be one of those things where you keep on it every year and try to be strategic with your tree planting so that you maximize the benefits that the tree planting provides,” Giroux said.

He suggested tree planting should begin in mid-April, while noting there are 30 different native tree species available thanks to ERCA’s seed collection program.

“We harvest seed from our native forests,” Giroux said. “We clean that seed, process it, send it to our partner nurseries and the nurseries grow that seed into trees for about two to three years and send it back to us. So a lot of those trees that are coming back to the Essex region, they are growing from our local genetics and when we're planting trees, grown from local seed, we know that our trees are going to thrive and landowners are going to be happy with their success.”

Giroux encouraged anyone interested in lining up projects for next year to get in touch with ERCA shortly after this year’s tree planting season, noting there are some tree planting volunteer opportunities on Earth Day and later this spring.

“Some people plant because they love the habitat. They love the biodiversity. They love the recreational opportunities that come with planting trees. So for us, it's a great time of the year to be outside. Everything is waking up. Things are greening up the trees are budding they're in flower and you're working with great people who all want the same thing - getting trees planted.”

“I would just direct people to our website and go to our upcoming events page and they can take a look at the upcoming tree planting events which are April 28 at the Little River Corridor Park. We call that the ERCA Earth Day Event we partner with the City of Windsor. Over 2000 native trees are going to be planted and I believe there's another event on May 11 at Malden Park where more trees are going to get planted.”

City of Windsor forester Yemi Adeyeye said about 1400 trees will soon be planted to kick off the spring planting season, noting staff hope to plant 3000 in total in various places throughout the year.

“Within the next one and a half weeks, trees will start going in and that will probably take us into the end of May,” Adeyeye said.

Adeyeye said hundreds of signs have already been placed in places where trees will soon be, recommending residents call 311 for any requests or concerns.

“We actually just made a direct tree planting service request within the last 2 months, so if people want to just call in 311 and ask for a tree or through your mobile phone, go directly to the service request, pick tree planting and enter your request there.”

According to Adeyeye the city has about 19 per cent tree canopy coverage based off a 2019 analysis, suggesting there’s always room for more.

“Since then we’ve increased our planting program, the rates at which we plant because of the advice included in that assessment, to make sure that at a minimum we maintain the canopy cover but with the potential to improve it.”

He continued, “There’s always room for more trees and we are also ramping up on being about to increase the potential as well as the environmental factors that necessitate tree planting also exacerbates. For example, last year you can see how drastic and how strong these storms were and how impactful they are across the city so we need to also meet up that challenge.”