Some neighbourhoods in Upper Tantallon and Hammonds Plains will get new trees to replace many lost in the May 2023 wildfire.
Residents of Westwood Hills, Highland Park and Perry Pond applied to Nova Scotia’s Thriving Forests program. About 118,000 trees will be planted on residential properties and in municipal parks in those neighbourhoods this fall. In a release, Westwood Hills resident, Kristi McKee says watching the saplings take root where burnt trees once stood will be an important step toward regaining a sense of normalcy.
The trees will be a mix of red and white spruce, white pine, tamarack, hemlock, red and sugar maple, yellow birch and red oak.
These projects are among 23 as part of Nova Scotia’s Climate Change for Clean Growth Plan that have been approved to date. In total, more than 570,000 trees will be planted this autumn in Nova Scotia with about $974,000 in provincial funding.
Acting Minister of Natural Resources and Renewables, Kent Smith says, “We’ve committed to planting 21 million trees in Nova Scotia as part of a national effort to support biodiversity, carbon capture and quality of life in our communities. This work also supports ecological forestry and green jobs to boost our rural economy. Along with our federal partners, we’re funding tree-planting projects across the province. I’m very happy that some of the first are helping restore neighbourhoods that were devastated by last year’s wildfire.”
The Clean Foundation is running Thriving Forests on behalf of the province. The program supports the federal government’s commitment to plant two billion trees across the country by 2031. It is open to governments, not-for-profit organizations, businesses, and Indigenous organizations and communities. Private landowners with about two hectares of land are also eligible. Application information is available here.
The federal and province governments have an agreement to each invest more than $20 million in Thriving Forests. Several provincial government departments, the Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq and the Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources developed the provincial program.
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