NEWS RELEASE
TREE TRUST TBM
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Local residents have been signing up in force for a community tree-planting event on May 7 jointly organized by the Town of the Blue Mountains, Tree Trust TBM and the Thornbury-Clarksburg Rotary Club.
Volunteers will be helping to plant over 600 tree seedlings at two separate locations along the Georgian Trail. Planting starts at 10 a.m. at the Northwinds section of the Georgian Trail (Grey Road 19 and Highway 26) and at 2 p.m. at the 10th Line section of the trail (just west of Thornbury, near Goldsmiths). Volunteers who have pre-registered with the town will be organized into planting teams and guided by volunteer team leaders.
Volunteer team leaders recently participated in a training session conducted by local arborist Tobias Effinger of Arboreal Tree Care, who explained that “we very much want to increase the survival rate of what we plant by using planting techniques that make a difference to initial and longer-term survival,” (unlike conventional planting programs with low survival rates).
With a high survival rate as a key objective, team leaders will demonstrate good planting technique to volunteers. Arrangements have also been made to have compost and water available for the newly planted trees to improve survivability.
Also notable about this event is the collaboration between the municipality and local community groups.
“The degree of collaboration among the program partners has been exceptional,” says John White of the Thornbury-Clarksburg Rotary Club. “There has been strong synergy and benefit from Town of the Blue Mountains, Tree Trust TBM and Thornbury-Clarksburg Rotary working together on this first-of-its-kind effort.”
Ryan Gibbons, director of community services for TBM, reiterated that sentiment: “We have been doing a lot of collaborative planning, which we hope will help with a successful event, but of course, we expect to learn and make potential improvements for future programs.”
Everyone involved in the planning is looking forward to meeting the volunteers and planting a healthy, off-to-a-great-start future canopy in our community.
Volunteers are asked to register their interest by emailing csadmin@
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