South Nation Conservation is set to plant a record amount of trees this season.
The group is planning to plant 230,000 trees and shrubs through its jurisdiction this Spring, which tops the previous record of 193,000 back in 1993.
SNC Outreach Assistant Kelsey Smith says public interest in conserving forest cover, along with people spending more time at home, and outdoors during the Pandemic may have helped contribute to record tree orders.
“I’m not sure if it was the pandemic, or if everyone just wants to get those trees planted and wants to see all our forests coming back,” Smith said. “Some of this is due to the emerald ash borer, so we do have a lot of ash trees that have been infected, so lots of people are looking to replace those.”
Smith says tree planting services are essential and will continue to go ahead with the appropriate health and safety precautions in place.
Most of the trees will be planted on private properties thanks to subsidies available to property owners to create windbreaks, control erosion, and for small to large reforestation projects.
Smith says the trees will also be planted on public properties, along County Roads, in Larose Forest in Prescott and Russell, and in public natural spaces such as Conservation Areas.
“It’s a variety of native trees getting planted,” Smith said. “From spruce to pine, willows, and then some that are not native but it’s all through our jurisdiction and we have some very large plantings on certain properties that are a few acres.”
SNC’s record-breaking tree planting season comes on the heels of one of its busiest years on record.
In 2020, over 140,000 people visited Conservation Areas.