It’s National Tree Day, and the City of London and ReForest London have teamed up to give away trees to the city’s residents.
Forestry Technologist, Rick Postma says this year, they’re trying to give out more trees than ever.
“A number of years ago the city wanted to start celebrating National Tree Day and we thought, what better way then to give away trees? This year we have been ramping up the number of trees we’ve been giving away. We are giving away 1,800 trees.”
ReForest London is asking that all the trees that get planted as part of today’s event are registered online as part of the Million Tree Challenge. They try to plant as many trees as possible on public land, but aren’t able to plant on private property.
“We are the Forest City.” Postma says. “We have canopy targets that [city council] set a few years ago. So, we have an urban forest strategy and part of that strategy is to plant more… We really want to try to encourage people to plant more trees. This is one way that we can, sort of, leverage the homeowners into helping us plant more trees.”
Tree pick up
People were lined up to pick up their free trees all morning. They were limited to 2 trees each, one large and one small.
Londoner, Tammy Jefferies says she wished she could have taken more than her alloted 2.
“[I would have taken] As many as they would have let me. For sure. I’ve planted about 20 trees already in my yard, so far, this year and if I could plant more, I would.”
Some of the trees available
There’s a wide variety of trees available and they’re all indigenous to the London area. There are conifers, ornamental, deciduous, and fruit trees.
“Something for everybody.” Postma says.
Trees are still available from 4-8 pm tonight at the Carling Heights Optimist Community Centre, or from 5-7 pm at ReForest London headquarters.
