CORNWALL, Ontario – This Saturday, Oct. 14, over 50 participants took part in the planting of 150 maple trees at the Children’s Aid Society of SDG.
Funded by Tree Canada, the Maple Leaf Project is a Canada-wide event taking place in celebration of Canada 150. Raisin Region Conservation Authority was one of 150 groups participating in the celebration, which featured heavy First Nations themes.
Tree Canada is a national not-for-profit organization that plants trees and promotes urban forestry. Program Manager, Rebecca Taylor says that there were a lot of careful considerations taken for each project.
“We have at least one project happening in every province and territory,” said Taylor. “Each tree planting event has similar themes, in that we’re planting native maple trees, the appropriate provincial emblem tree, as well as trees chosen by the local First Nations community.”
The trees, themselves were planted in the shape of a maple leaf, with seven species of maple. RRCA Forrestry Specialist, Normand Genier says that he and his team tried to ensure the trees would be beautiful all year.
“What’s unique about this project is that in the future, people will be able to fly over this property and see a large maple leaf. We picked a variety of species which will ensure there will be colour in the maple leaf year-round,” said Genier. “We used GIS to create the initial shape of the maple leaf. Then, we double checked everything with a compass, and sent a drone out to triple check the shape.”
