Trees for Halton Hills has its sights set on greening the grounds of Town Hall.
The group intends to plant several heritage trees (those native to Ontario) this year on the municipal property at Maple Avenue and Halton Hills Drive, with funds coming from a legacy grant to commemorate the Town's 50 anniversary. A plaque recognizing the heritage nature of the trees will accompany them.
“We thought it was a great opportunity, and we immediately envisioned… trees that are representative of the heritage in this municipality,” Trees for Halton Hills Corporate Secretary Hal Watson said.
A total of 24 native trees will be planted, consisting of four caliper-sized trees and 20 smaller ones, including white pine, red oak, bur oak and the ever-so-patriotic sugar maple.
“There's a huge benefit to native trees because those are the trees that all the critters rely on; the birds and the bees and the insects and the caterpillars and the animals, they need those trees to survive,” Watson said.
The four larger trees will be located on the west side of Halton Hills Drive, near the Town Hall building. The 20 others are part of a plan to create a grove of trees on the east side of the street - with an eventual goal of 200 at the location.
"We mimic the CVC (Credit Valley Conservation) a lot in how we plant and what we plant. We stay within the native ecosystem that is here already. We want to enhance it and not take away from this system,” said Trees for Halton Hills Project Coordinator Corrina McAloon.
The project to beautify the local Town Hall property is one branch of the group’s goal to plant 65,000 native trees across Halton Hills - one for every resident of the town. Thus far, they have planted around 8,000.
The efforts can be seen in the landscape of Halton Hills. The group showcases trees from the Carolinian Forest in their arboretum across the street from Joseph Gibbons Park. Their “Place in the Shade” project, as the name implies, aims to create shade in places that would otherwise be too hot for people to enjoy.
“We're not going to solve the climate crisis by planting trees in Georgetown,” Watson said. “You can say, ‘If you plant 25 trees here, what's that going to do?’ It's all cumulative. And of course, in Halton Hills, what we want people to do is get on board and plant 65,000 trees. And that really starts to have a significant impact.”
No solid date has been pinned down yet for the planting, but Trees for Halton Hills anticipates that it will be sometime this spring.
For more information on Trees for Halton Hills and their other projects, visit 65000Trees.ca.
