By Marlene Knezevich, chair of Let’s Tree Wilmot, as seen in the Wilmot-Tavistock Gazette
Let’s Tree (LTW) has come a long way from its first meeting on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the evening the COVID-19 pandemic was pronounced by the World Health Organization (WHO).
We had a COVID pause, but with lots of support from the community, we were able to fund and complete our first planting Oct. 24 at Scott Park, New Hamburg. The Nith Valley Ecoboosters (NVEB) was instrumental in getting LTW off the ground. LTW became a project of Garden Wilmot because they had insurance, charitable status and tree planting fit their mandate.
Since then, various sponsors have funded the planting of trees in Wilmot Township parks and on municipal property. The Township of Wilmot’s park’s department has been true partners. We have planted trees in every Wilmot settlement that has parks. Three years ago, LTW was awarded a $160,000 grant through the 2 Billion Tree Natural Resources Canada Capacity Building program. This allowed us to support the township with planting and maintaining more trees. The township does not have the resources to fully support tree planting and maintenance. Billy, a used Ram Truck, was purchased and outfitted with water tank and pump. Since 2020, we have planted 4,639 native trees, grown 2,000 seedlings in our nursery bed and, by the end of 2024, we were watering 2,600 trees.
Education is just as important and we have listed many resources on our website, created videos on several topics posted on our YouTube Channel, offered tree-pruning workshops, forest walks, a booth at the Canada Day celebration and presented talks in the community. We had renowned author Doug Tallamy come and talk about Nature’s Last Hope, which is every one of us.
By the time you are reading this article, LTW hopes to have received a new Federal Canadian Municipalities Funding grant. Plans are underway for planting in New Hamburg and Mannheim this year.
What are our goals for the long term? We wish to continue to increase the native tree canopy of Wilmot Township. Soon, our public lands will be fully planted so the focus will be on private lands. Many Wilmot landowners have already planted trees to increase wildlife habitats and to leave a legacy. Why focus on private land? Most of the property in Wilmot is owned privately. Excluding farmland, we have large, rural properties and the smaller, urban properties that all offer excellent opportunities to plant more native trees, large and small.
Doug Tallamy has an excellent concept, the Homegrown National Park.
“Our National Parks, no matter how grand in scale, are too small and separated from one another to preserve (native) species to the levels needed. Thus, the concept for Homegrown National Park, a bottom-up call-to-action to restore habitat where we live and work and, to a lesser extent, where we farm and graze, extending national parks to our yards and communities.”
Let’s strive to make Wilmot Township a park. A greener township will create connected wildlife-habitat corridors, increase biodiversity, offer more green space to enjoy and benefit our health, provide cooling and improve water management among many more benefits. Wilmot will become more beautiful.
We have been collaborating with owners to increase their tree canopies and also wetlands. This includes working with Ducks Unlimited. The largest project is the Nithview Floodplain, New Hamburg, owned by Tri-County Mennonite Homes. The owners cover the costs and we provide expertise and volunteers. There are grants available, too, to help out landowners.
Email us at letstreewilmot@gmail.com for more information. We have a Tree Pruning Workshop on Saturday, March 30 in Mannheim. Registration is required. Go to our events page at LetsTreeWilmot.ca.
Have a tree-mendous spring!
