By Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative reporter, as seen in the Wilmot-Tavistock Gazette
Let’s Tree Wilmot, a group of volunteers in Wilmot Township with the goal of enhancing the natural environment by planting trees, marked National Forest Week with a successful tree planting behind Nithview Home in New Hamburg Sept. 28.
The group invited locals to join members as they partnered with Tri-County Mennonite Homes, the owner of Nithview Home, to continue their efforts to enhance the habitat of approximately 35 acres of floodplain behind the senior’s residence on the shores of the Nith River. Let’s Tree Wilmot and its volunteers were joined for the tree planting by Kitchener-Conestoga MP Tim Louis.
“I’m really thankful for the federal government’s $2 billion Tree Grant because our township just does not have the resources and it allowed us to buy a truck so that we can water the trees,” said Let’s Tree Wilmot member Marlene Knezevich. “And in my opinion, if you’re not going to maintain the trees, there’s no point planting them.”
This was the second Let’s Tree Wilmot event in September. On Sept. 14, volunteers planted trees at Foundry Park in Baden and Fairmount Cemetery. Another planting project is scheduled for the Haysville Community Centre on Oct. 26. “For our group, we feel like it’s helping the land come back to where it should be,” Knezevich said. “And so, over time with planting 4,000 trees and increasing more natural habitat, that to us is our big role in reconciliation.” Let’s Tree Wilmot is always in need of more volunteers to help with both planting and maintaining the trees, as well as other less-physical tasks. “We are always looking for volunteers.
For people who don’t want to or are unable to do the physical part of tree planting, there’s running educational programs and we have our website. We’d love to have somebody who knows WordPress and Elementor help us with that,” Knezevich said. “And if anybody just loves trees and you’d like to run some kind of program, we’re totally open to that. And then, we have what we call our water warriors. We have shifts in the summertime with parks assigned to different people. Also, in some of our park areas, we have somebody we call our tree guardians who just keep an eye on the park. If something is happening there or there are some tree needs, they let us know. We’re always looking for people to keep an eye on our trees.”
For more information on upcoming tree-planting events and how to volunteer with Let’s Tree Wilmot, visit www. letstreewilmot.ca.
Pictured are Kitchener-Conestoga MP Tim Louis, Let’s Tree Wilmot member Marlene Knezevich and Wilmot Coun. Steven Martin at Let’s Tree Wilmot’s tree planting behind Nithview Home in New Hamburg, Sept. 28. Photo by Chris Hussey
