Mother Nature smiled on the South Simcoe Streams Network’s Community Work Party Day Sunday.
About 120 volunteers came out to help the Network plant more than 750 trees and shrubs along the banks of Lovers' Creek in Innisfil.
It was part of a regular streambank rehabilitation program operated by Nottawasaga Futures, through the South Simcoe Streams Network and its partners.
For over a decade, the Network has been planting trees, to provide wildlife habitat, improve water quality in South Simcoe’s streams and rivers, and stabilize riverbanks.
Among the volunteers on Sunday were Cubs, Beavers and Scouts with 4th and 10th Barrie, 1st Stroud, 1st Alcona and 1st Tottenham; members of the Simcoe County Chinese Association, and the Innisfil Soccer Club.
For the Scouters, it was part of an annual tree-planting exercise. The Scout Trees program has been in operation since 1972.
“It’s one of the main focuses in the spring, just to connect the Scouting movement with land stewardship,” said Simcoe Phoenix Planting Co-ordinator Greg Peach, group commissioner with 10th Barrie. “It’s exciting to see the number of 5, 6, 7-year-olds out here experiencing this for the first time.”
After an initial orientation at Centennial Park with South Simcoe Stream Network’s Environmental Liaison Silvia Pedrazzi, the volunteers broke into three groups.
Two groups stayed in the park, planting trees beside the playground, and Lovers' Creek. The third group was bused to a site further south, recently acquired by the municipality, where the creek flowed through cleared farmland.
Trees planted included tamarack, pine, white cedar, white spruce, Nannyberry but also two species not common to the area – swamp white oak, and Sycamore, introduced to help diversify the forest in the face of climate change.
Meanwhile, temperatures soared into the double digits and the sun shone – a welcome change after days of rain.
“It’s a great day,” said volunteer Jazmin Gall. “I’ve done it in rain or shine, and really prefer this! It makes it easier.”
Funding for the day came, in part, from the Dufferin Simcoe Land Stewardship Network, through the Simcoe County Tree Program.
Scouting provided the bus, and portable toilets; Sobeys in Alcona, a snack for the volunteers, and the Town of Innisfil, the mulch for the young trees.
Other tree-planting community events are planned this spring includes a Community Work Party Day in Bradford Saturday, May 11, along Fraser Creek. From 9 a.m. to noon, volunteers will be planting trees and shrubs beside the Bradford Home Depot, at 470 Holland St. West. To sign up, contact Silvia Pedrazzi, [email protected] or 705-435-1540, ext. 107.
With any luck, Mother Nature will smile again.
