More Than 600 Trees Planted in Woodstock

Burgess Park benefits from one-day tree planting brigade

UTRCA Naturalization Project

In less than three hours, various species of trees were planted on a site on the west edge of Woodstock on Sunday.
The Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) in an event sponsored by the Lions Club of Woodstock, which I'm a member of, participated in: the Burgess Park Naturalization Project. Simply put, an area of about 60 acres (my guess), which already had a mix of vegetation and some trees, but was essentially a deserted farm field managed by the UTRCA, saw the planting of more than 600 trees -- some about 3-feet tall and many much smaller.
The workforce included employees from the UTRCA (www.thamesriver.on.ca) and City of Woodstock parks department to monitor and supervise, but most of the labour came from about 200 members of various local scouts and girl guide groups. The trees were delivered on the back of a UTRCA pick-up truck, while the volunteers brought shovels, pails and determination. The pails were necessary as there existed a small mountain of mulch, which was the nutrient base for these new up-start trees. The mulch supply was distributed by local environmentalist / former scout leader / amateur arborist John Duffy. He seemed quite content to be sitting in a stack of shredded old trees -- bark, branches, chips and twigs.
As a member of the Lions Club of Woodstock, I was part of the coolers crew -- coolers with drinks and hot dogs, plus a skid of buns, and a box of relish and mustard -- to feed this brigade of diggers and planters.
At the end of the day, in this case a long morning, I hope to be a gradual witness of growth watching in this previously seemingly barren acreage as it evolves into a thriving forest. I hope the UTRCA folks plant 10 stakes around the circumference of this area -- stakes holding signs noting the number of trees planted and the importance of not trampling the area.
Check out the UTRCA website for more information on similar projects in the Thames River watershed, especially around Fanshawe Lake in London and the Wildwood conservation area near St Marys (and at the extreme northwest of Oxford County).
"We're planting over 7,200 native trees and shrubs with an anticipated 1,900 students and 1,700 community members. Schools and community groups are planting from April 17 to May 5," noted the home page of the website.
Some of the funding for the Woodstock event was donated by the Lions Club of Woodstock (Call me if you're interested in finding out more about joining our service club), but dollars also arrived via: the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, RBC Blue Water Program, the Trillium Foundation, Trees Ontario, CAA, and EcoAction through Environment Canada.
With the Lions Club, planting trees is a current international quest as Lions International president Wing-Kun Tam is challenging Lions around the world to plant 10 million trees this year to demonstrate the strength of our global network.
The UTRCA plans on planting 70,000 trees this spring. It's a great goal and very achievable. If you want a tree and own 2.5 acres of land or more, the UTRCA will provide you with at least one tree as landowners who own one hectare (2.5 acres) or more of land and live within the Upper Thames River watershed are eligible to participate in the "Tree Planting on Private Lands" program.
A story in last week's Sentinel-Review noted the obstacle in planting trees is to find spots. Steve Bowers, a field adviser with Trees Ontario, was in Woodstock last week, noting in the S-R piece. "It’s a challenge to get tree sites. We’d like to see farmers squaring up fields by planting trees instead of taking them out. Land prices are so high, it’s a big decision."
You don't have to be a botanist to know that trees can be the anchor for the ground. Burgess Park and its accompanying nature (walking and cycling) trails around the Thames River are a treasure for us to enjoy now and in the future. Nature lovers like John Duffy have taken their hobby into the current forests and have even labelled trees to note their breed or genus.
The UTRCA has quite a task at hand as they monitor and manage everything from campgrounds to flood studies, plants and animals to education and land maintenance, memorial forests to heritage studies, publishing maps to building bridges.
In future years, it may become necessary for individual municipalities to take even more control of parks / trails along this waterway, but the UTRCA always has the final say.
Sunday, April 29 was a sunny day, but also a day that brought some sunshine on the future of Burgess Park and those who love nature. The UTRCA current slogan is a good recap: "Inspiring A Healthy Environment'.