ABOYNE – Wellington County’s Green Legacy program celebrated the planting of its three millionth tree here on June 29.
Commenting on the remarkable accomplishment during a ceremony at the Wellington County Museum and Archives, Warden Kelly Linton quoted St. Francis Assisi.
“Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible,” Linton said.
“I think our Green Legacy program reflects this truth. The county started the Green Legacy program because we knew planting trees was 100% necessary for a healthy environment.
“Year after year after year we continue to plant as many trees as possible, and today we’re planting our three millionth tree.”
He added, “When this program started, this milestone would have seemed impossible.
“It all started back by doing what was necessary, planting that first tree back in 2004.”
In 2004, the Green Legacy started out as a simple idea to plant 150,000 trees in celebration of the county’s 150th anniversary. The program has grown significantly over the past 18 years.
Under Green Legacy, the county has been able to continuously increase forest cover, plant wind breaks on farms, living snow fences on county roads and educate current and future generations on the importance trees have in the community and the environmental benefits they provide.
In 2010, the County’s Green Legacy program was recognized by the United Nations under the Billion Tree Campaign, for its significant environmental contribution.
Today, Green Legacy is the largest municipal tree planting program in North America.
“And the county’s Green Legacy program is not just about planting trees, it’s about engaging our community” said Linton.
“Our program would not be possible if it weren’t for the contributions of many local volunteers.”
He noted every school in Wellington County supports Green Legacy in some way.
Junior kindergarten to Grade three students produce over 13,000 seedlings in their own classrooms, Grades four to six students help transplant over 175,000 trees in nurseries and Grade seven and eight students plant over 8,000 trees at multiple sites across the county.
“And now we have co-op opportunities for high school students,” Linton explained.
“So local schools and local school children are getting hands-on experience and learning valuable lessons about the environmental benefits of planting trees.”
In addition to growing trees, fighting climate change and educating youth, the planting program is also “spreading happiness” around the county, said Green Legacy manager Rob Johnson.
Noting volunteering is among the things that makes people “truly happy,” Johnson said, “We have volunteers, 4,000 people, coming out helping us grow trees that go back to the community.
“They’re being happy because they’re providing something for somebody else. They go out to the county, to a landowner who plants a windbreak on his farm increases his crop yield, that’ll make him happy, because his crop yield is increasing, he’s making more revenue,” explained Johnson.
He added the trees create “a living snow fence,” which protects motorists and snowplow operators on roadways in the county.
Johnson pointed out a recent Oxford study looked at the best ways people can fight climate change.
“They found that the best thing we could do constantly – the biggest cost benefit – was to plant a tree,” he said.
“So the county has been doing that, about three million of them.”
Senator Rob Black, a Centre Wellington resident, told those gathered for the celebration he has been been using the Green Legacy program since its inception.
“And I planted thousands of trees on my property,” said Black.
“Through education and involvement in the program, the people of Wellington County have contributed to the increasing forest cover to a healthy level, creating a green infrastructure, which is ensuring our ongoing environmental benefits and will help our county to deal with and adapt to climate change.”
“I think we need to hold up the County of Wellington council and staff as an example to the rest of the province,” said Wellington-Halton Hills MP Ted Arnott.
“It’s something that we should be very, very proud of. It doesn’t happen by accident, doesn’t happen without great effort and coordination with many local community organizations.
“It’s great to see some of the children here today whose future will be better because of the trees that are being planted not only in Wellington County, but increasingly across the province, across the country and around the world.”
Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong provided a historical perspective, noting early settlers aggressively cleared much of the virgin forests of southwestern Ontario because they needed the land to grow food.
“Some old timers have told me that by the 1950s, there wasn’t a tree standing in this entire watershed. And it ended up creating three big problems. We had massive floods in the springtime; in fact, Galt would flood over regularly every spring, much of the communities along the Grand River would flood over.
“And by July, August, you could walk across the river it was that dry. So we had massive floods and massive droughts. We also had a drop in crop yields because there was nothing to prevent the buffeting of the crops by the wind.
“And species were at risk because we didn’t have any forest cover.”
Chong continued, “So conservation authorities were started, tree planting programs started and the county 20 years ago … piggybacked on that effort in a very big way.
“And so today, we now have gone from a situation where in this watershed we were once around three or four per cent forest cover to, I think we’re now closer to 20%.”
“Three million trees is quite an accomplishment,” said Perth-Wellington MP John Nater.
“The fact that Wellington County, here in rural Ontario, has the most successful tree planting program by municipality in North America is truly a testament to the hard work, innovation and ingenuity of community members past and present.”
Erin Mayor Allan Alls, who chairs the county’s planning committee, said the three millionth tree “honours and celebrates the individuals and organizations who have made this milestone possible.
“This would not have been possible without their help.”
