Chatham-Kent’s tree canopy is about to grow, thanks to a joint effort between the municipality and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM.)
A recently approved grant application of $728,240 under the FCM’s growing Canada’s Community Canopies is being matched by Chatham-Kent, with a goal of planting some 940 trees.
According to an administrative report recently presented to council, 725 “street trees” will be planted in recently developed residential neighbourhoods in Chatham, Dresden, Pain Court and Tilbury.
An additional 223 “mature large-caliper shade trees” will be strategically planted in various urban municipal parks to increase shade for park users in Blenheim, Bothwell, Chatham, Dresden, Mitchell’s Bay, Thamesville, Tilbury, Wallaceburg and Wheatley
A standout feature of the project is its “strong emphasis on long-term maintenance and lifecycle management,” the report stated, with all of the new trees subject to a two-year warranty.
Tree planting and maintenance activities associated with this initiative still needs to be procured through the Request for Proposal process.
I hope the Municipality of Chatham Kent actually comes back periodically to see how the trees fare and prune sucker branches and replace the ones that die. I’ve seen many trees planted that are left dead and ones that are full of sucker branches. We also need to keep planting a vast larger number of trees as Chatham Kent has far less tree coverage (between 3 and 4%) We have the least coverage of trees than any other municipality in Ontario which is quite sad.
I dont think it should cost 1.5 million to plant 940 trees.