By Chrystina McNeil, as seen in the Wilmot-Tavistock Gazette
There’s something special about the sight of new trees taking root in our community — a reminder that small actions today can grow into lasting legacies. Let’s Tree Wilmot celebrates another successful season with 1,122 new trees planted at 6 sites throughout 2025. This brings the total number of trees planted in our communities by LTW to 5,862 since 2020.
We’d like to invite you to join LTW on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at the Wilmot Recreation Complex at 7 p.m. for a free evening event to celebrate the year’s accomplishments, our volunteers and to enjoy a presentation by Christine Earnshaw from Tree Canada
entitled Growing Greener Communities: Perspectives from Tree Canada.
Across Canada, towns big and small are joining the effort to restore and expand local tree canopies, often with funding and help from Tree Canada’s Growing Canada’s Community Canopies (GCCC) initiative. To learn more about the initiative and what it could mean for our town, we spoke with Christine about the initiative, her own experiences and why planting trees in urban areas is so important.
Why are community canopies so important for our towns and cities?
Tree canopies are important to towns and cities because they provide a myriad of environmental, health, social and ecological benefits. Trees and other vegetation are essential to make our towns and cities livable, by improving the air quality, cooling and shading, providing habitat, beauty, as well as so much more. A healthy and robust urban forest helps cities and towns adapt to climate change and combat biodiversity loss.
Tree planting sounds simple, but it takes a lot of community spirit. How does Tree Canada work with local volunteers, schools, or groups to make these projects happen?
Tree Canada designs and delivers a number of programs that support volunteers, schools, municipal governments and non-governmental organizations to plant trees in their communities. Volunteers who plant trees, as well as those who are involved in stewardship and protection, are critical for the sustainability of a healthy urban forest.
What’s something about trees or urban canopies that most people don’t know, but you wish they did?
Everyone has a role to play in growing and protecting our urban forests. Whether you’re a resident, elected official, business owner, or a member of a community organization, your actions matter. Urban forests thrive when communities come together and contribute to care for them.
In your opinion, what is the most rewarding part of watching a tree canopy grow over time?
Knowing that larger, mature trees provide exponentially more benefits than young ones. When planting trees, it’s important to select the right trees, for the right places, and to ensure those planted have the space, conditions and the ongoing care they need to flourish.
Let’s Tree Wilmot’s efforts and the Growing Canada’s Community Canopies initiative is about much more than trees — it’s about growing community roots. Every sapling planted brings people together, provides shade for future generations, and strengthens our local resilience in the face of climate change.
Residents who want to get involved can visit www.letstreewilmot.ca to learn about upcoming planting events, volunteer opportunities, or ways to support projects in our region. Because when we plant trees together, we’re not just adding green to our streets, we’re helping our town grow stronger, one tree at a time.
Christine Earnshaw of Tree Canada will make a presentation at Let’s Tree Wilmot’s Fall Celebration entitled, “Growing Greener Communities: Perspectives from Tree Canada.” Photo courtesy of Christine Earnshaw
(PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRISTINE EARNSHAW)
Let’s Tree Wilmot volunteers at a recent planting event.
