2 Billion Trees Start With 2 Billion Seeds
I love trees and spending time in nature. We are fortunate in Kanata—Carleton to have many parks and other greenspaces available to us such as the South March Highlands Conservation Forest, Carp Ridge and Torbolton Forest.
Aside from beautifying our landscapes and providing much needed shade during hot summer months, trees provide many other benefits. Many species of wildlife depend on trees for habitat, trees give off oxygen for us to breathe, and they improve our air quality by filtering harmful dust and pollutants from the air - to name just a few.
Planting trees is an important part of our plan to fight climate change and curb biodiversity loss, and I’m excited to share an update on our government’s 2 Billion Trees Commitment. We are on track to plant 2 billion trees across the country, a key part of our government’s plans to fight climate change, support biodiversity, and create thousands of jobs.
The 2 Billion Trees program is an integral part of Canada’s broader approach to nature based climate solutions. Expanding Canada’s forests will result in capture and storage of harmful greenhouse gas emissions and the strengthening of biodiversity and ecosystem resiliency. The planting process will also create over 4,000 jobs in communities across the country over the next ten years and spur sustainable investment in Canadian supply chains and tree planting infrastructure. The trees planted from this program will represent a 40 percent increase in the number of trees planted in Canada, and will enlarge Canada’s forest cover by 1.1 million hectares, an area twice the size of Prince Edward Island.
Planting two billion trees is no small feat. It starts with 2 billion seeds and takes a lot of planning, preparation, and often many years to get from a seed to planting a tree in the ground, but the benefits last decades.
In keeping with our government’s long-term plan, the number of trees planted each year will increase, scaling up annually in line with the hard work that is underway in nurseries all over the country to grow capacity to meet that demand. On December 16th, the government launched the second call for proposals, which will help accelerate planting across the country.
Resources
Are you an organization interested in being a part of the 2 Billion Trees program?
Find out about the different funding streams, who can apply, and what projects are eligible.
Are you interested in learning about our progress and how we work with our partners?
Are you a tree-enthusiast?
