Mass tree planting event a success

Volunteers helped make Pictou County a little greener on Saturday, May 13.

More than 20 volunteers came out to plant hundreds of trees on currently unused land in Coalburn.

The Municipality of Pictou County’s Climate Change Advisory Committee organized the initiative.

“The objective of the Climate Change Advisory Committee is to help the council develop projects that will help the council reduce the impacts of climate change,” Ed Kennedy, chair of the Pictou County Tree Planting Subcommittee, explained.

Last year the committee helped organize the planting of 2,500 trees; this year the goal is to plant 5,000 spruce seedlings.

The May 13 mass planting was the first step towards that goal.

“The idea is to let them grow to full maturity which gives them the maximum carbon capture,” Kennedy said.

This will reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the air and help mitigate the impacts of climate change.

“We can actually do something about climate change,” Warden Robert Parker said. “We’re not just talking about it. We’re doing something. These trees someday will be 40 and 50 feet high and will be sucking up carbon and keeping our atmosphere clear.”

He said he was thankful for all the volunteers who joined in to help plant the trees.

“It means a lot that people will come out.”

Parker noted that Pictou County lost a lot of trees during Hurricane Fiona last fall and this planting helps to replace them.

The remaining 2,500 seedlings will also be going into the ground soon.  

Kennedy said there are seven schools in the county that have expressed interest in planting the seedlings on their properties with their students.

This fall the MOPC will also be giving property owners who are interested some hardwood seedlings to plant on their property. Kennedy said those will be maple and oak and each person who registers should be able to get two or three.

Anyone interested in registering for those hardwood seedlings can email Ed Kennedy at kennedyeda@gmail.com.