ATHABASCA – The new wave of foliage could soon be making its way to Athabasca with the help of a federal grant opportunity that will see billions of new trees distributed across the country, at zero to little cost.
Coun. Edie Yuill brought a request for decision to Athabasca town council Feb. 1, putting forth the idea of participating in the Government of Canada’s 2 Billion Trees program, that would see groups across the country receive thousands upon thousands of trees each.
“The 2 Billion Trees (2BT) program aims to motivate and support new tree planting projects. Over the next 10 years, up to $3.2 billion will be invested in tree planting efforts to support provinces, territories, third-party organizations (for and not-for profit) and Indigenous organizations to plant two billion trees across Canada,” states the program’s homepage.
“We are eligible for 10,000 trees and so my thought was that if we're going to help the environment, and trees do that, let’s get free trees,” Yuill told council. “More trees within our parks and along our walkways, we can take down some of the trees that are dying in the parks and at the riverfront and then hand out the rest to residents that want to plant them in their yards.”
“It sounds like a pretty ambitious public works initiative, or a community initiative, so that would be my concern, just having the resources,” said Coun. Sara Graling.
Yuill pointed out there were many local groups and service clubs that could be asked to help, and with the rest going to residents, many would be planted by those who claimed them. There were still details to work out, she said, but the deadline of Feb. 17 is fast approaching, and she wanted to make sure it could be approved in time, and that she had already done much of the grant writing herself.
Graling went on to say Athabasca County has a very successful tree program that sells out every year, so she had no doubt the town could distribute them easily enough, but again expressed concerns to be mindful of public works resources.
“I would assume that the bulk of these trees would go to service groups and be handled that way,” said mayor Rob Balay. “I could see the town using some of those trees; you might get some pushback from public works as sometimes too many trees can be a problem. That being said, there's lots of places where trees could go where the forest needs reforestation, so it's just a matter of finding someone to do that work, which would have to be volunteer work.”
Coun. Dave Pacholok said he liked the idea but was also concerned with the increased fire hazard of having too many trees, especially considering where the town is situated on the edge of the often tinder-dry boreal forest.
“One of the things that you have to be aware of is the Fire Smart program and the fact that people come here and tell us trees are too close to buildings, too close to residences, and that could cause grief. I built my house in 1994 and planted spruce trees far too close to my house. I had three pictures of my house in the Fire Smart presentation saying I was in a dangerous spot with my trees,” said Pacholok.
Yuill was unsure of what type of trees would be distributed but said she was under the impression the groups would receive grant money to purchase the trees of their choice and given the option she said that deciduous trees would be her preference, as opposed to coniferous evergreens like spruce, pine and fir.
Council approved the motion to proceed with the application.
The federal government notes 30 million trees have already been planted through the initiative since it was introduced in early 2021.
