Landowners in the Ausable Bayfield watershed set a ten-year record this spring for the number of trees they planted.
Forestry and Land Stewardship Specialist Ian Jean says they planted over 56 thousand trees on about 80 acres. That's more than they've planted in any spring in the last ten years.
Jean says most of them were planted in existing forest on marginal land that had been retired to natural cover, and that's important in maintaining water quality and healthy natural areas.
"Every year we purpose between thirty and forty landowners planting trees, so if we get a couple of projects that are seven, eight, nine, ten acres that really bumps up the number of trees and if we don't get a couple of those large projects the numbers are down, so it's kind of a year by year thing and this just happened to be a year where we had a couple of larger projects," he says.
Jean adds there was some concern this year because the weather didn't allow the early start they were hoping for, but once they got going the weather co-operated and things moved along nicely.
Jean suggests anyone interested in planting trees call their local conservation authority because there is funding available from a number of sources to help cover the costs and the conservation authority can help develop a plan and then find the funding.
Freshly planted trees in Ausable Bayfield. (Photo by Bob Montgomery)
