250 trees and shrubs planted, spearheaded by Lindsay couple

An incredible 250 trees and shrubs were planted recently at Lavender-Blu EcoFarm in Seagrave, spearheaded by a Lindsay couple who operate ‘Plant a Forest.’

Richard and Sandi Gauder’s ‘Plant a Forest’ concept is not an organization, though. It’s a grass roots concept: just buy trees and plant them, according to Richard Gauder.

“We aggregate everyone’s money, then go straight to the tree nursery and buy the trees,” he says, so that 100% of the money goes towards purchasing and planting the trees.

They even let contributors know where they are being planted, “so if possible, you can visit them and see them grow,” according to their Gauder.

The ‘Plant a Forest’ website notes that “People decide to purchase trees for different reasons – increasing biodiversity, carbon offset, replacing trees that you’ve cleared for housing or farming.”

In this case for the recent planting of 250 trees, each dollar was matched by the Scugog Water Fund.

“As youth and education are important,” says Gauder, “we invited some Lindsay Cadets to join us. Together with some adult volunteers, the 20 of us were able to plant 250 trees in less than two hours.”

In fact, one of Gauder’s goals is to show people how easy it is to do their own plantings. The purpose of the blog they created is to share their own ups and downs so others can learn from their experiences.

They point out this new forest will act as a windbreak, feed humans, animals, insects, and help with water run-off.

The Gauder’s company, CMS Web Solutions, has committed to buy and plant 11 trees for every new client.