Wellesley will soon be greener as the township looks to expand its tree canopy through a planting initiative in a partnership between the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and Reep Green Solutions.
The goal is to plant 5,000 trees by 2027 along roadsides throughout Wellesley, aiming to cultivate more vibrant green corridors in the township. Spring planting will finish in June, and then tree planting will ramp up in the fall.
The project is partly funded by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and will plant a mix of 20 native tree species, including red maples, bitternut hickory and American elms.
“We’re planting 9,000 trees by the end of the year,” said Kenton Bossy, Tree Nursery Manager at Reep, where all the trees for the project are grown.
“Those are divided up between township and regional roads. So, in the township of Wellesley, 4,000 are going on the regional roads there. And the township of Wellesley has provided some funding to get 1,000 more on township roads there. And then in Wilmot, another 4,000 are going along regional roads there.”
During one of the project’s tree-planting days on April 16, three Reep representatvies, including Bossy, headed to Hessen Strasse and a couple of other locations, planting 160 trees by the end of the day. Thus far, the project has planted trees along approximately 20 kilometres of road.
The tree-planting process itself is more complicated than picking up a shovel and digging a hole to plop a tree into, Bossy notes.
“We use satellite imagery and ArcGIS layers provided by the Region of Waterloo and a little bit of Google Street View to really assess what hazards there might be, what sort of slope we’re looking at, if there are hydro lines, if there’s encroachment by the farmers on to the land that we’re hoping to plant on – a whole battery of things. Then we submit those locations to the region or the township for them to lay additional eyes on it, because they have information to see if there’s underground infrastructure that we shouldn’t be planting on top of, or if the plantings would interfere with capital works over the next 10 years or so,” he explained.
“Township sites were selected by picking primarily north-south roads and planting on the west-east sides to create a natural snow fence once the trees mature. Reep picked sites that were located throughout the township and contacted property owners to advise them this project would take place abutting their property. Reep chose not to focus on one specific area in the township for planting to spread out the project and increase the tree canopy as they mature,” said Jake Redpath, public works technologist at the Township of Wellesley.
Given the harsh conditions on roadsides, Bossy explained is important that the project plant drought-resistant, salt-spray-resistant and pollution-resistant trees.
“We have a list of approved native species, both mature and small stature, small stature being trees that can grow under hydro lines without being pruned. I think we have around 20 species currently selected,” said Bossy
“We’re lucky enough to have pretty decent soil around here, so we haven’t had to be extremely picky about species selection.”
He added that having a variety of tree species to promote biodiversity is an important consideration, given past issues that have decimated the area’s tree canopy, including the attack of ash trees by the emerald ash borer, an invasive species of beetle.
One challenge with large-scale tree-planting initiatives is securing an inventory of the available tree varieties to support the project’s biodiversity goals.
“We’ve essentially grown and supplemented our tree inventory as much as we possibly can, but across Ontario, there is a lack of good local, native seed for a lot of species that we’d love to see planted out there, and that’s just not available,” said Bossy.
All the seeds for Reep’s nursery are collected by Bossy and other Reep volunteers. He is part of Reep’s team of certified seed collectors.
“Reep had initial funding for getting 14 volunteers in the community certified as seed collectors through the Forest Gene Conservation Association (FGCA), and I’m also a certified collector myself. We are all certified to collect seeds sustainably and to identify high-quality seeds with strong genetics. And so, I have eyes on the ground across the region and myself, and we collect it all in-house, whatever nature is willing to provide that year. That’s what we’re out and collecting,” said Bossy.
“The idea is that they’re genetically suited to be planted in this area because they were collected from mature stands in this area that have adapted to the stresses of the climate here, with some seed coming from further south in Ontario, because we’re forecasting the climate to be a little more similar to that in 50 years.”
For some tree species, there are no viable seeds to collect, or the seeds are not being closely tracked. Bossy noted that this is not a problem specific to the project but rather one across the nursery industry.
“There’s been a gap in the seed market ever since the [Ontario Tree Seed Plant] closed some years back, which was the primary distributor and processor of seed for growers, and I don’t think that torch has ever been fully picked up by anyone in particular. So, we’re able to meet our own niche needs just because of training and general community interest,” explained Bossy.
The Township of Woolwich had a similar tree-planting program, the rural road tree-planting program, in partnership with Trees for Woolwich, which ran from spring 2023 to fall 2024. The benefits of trees have driven more municipalities to invest in tree planting initiatives. Some of the positive impacts of trees in a community include reducing urban heat island effects, preventing erosion, improving water quality, reducing snowdrifts on roads and providing aesthetic value.
“There is a lot of talk about it [tree planting initiatives] being such a popular idea for townships that expanding out into the County of Wellington might be an avenue as well, at least for consulting, like take this project and make it appropriate for their sites,” said Bossy.
He added that many places are expanding their tree-planting goals, planning to develop their tree canopy. For example, Reforest Woolwich aims to increase the township’s urban tree canopy cover to 32 per cent by 2070 from a starting point of 16.3 per cent. Bossy added that with these goals come questions about where the trees will be planted. Initiatives such as roadside planting provide a convenient, practical answer.
“Where are you going to put all these trees? This initiative answers a lot of the questions: Where are you getting the trees? Who’s growing them? Who knows how to do it, and where are they going to get planted? So, at a really micro level, it answers all the challenging questions about these mass-scale urban forestry strategies.”
