Norland forester plants one millionth tree

A Norland area forester has planted her 1,000,000th tree on a property near Norland in May.

Eleanor Reed has been a planting delivery agent for the 50 Million Tree Program since it began in 2008. The program is managed by Forests Ontario and was funded by the Province of Ontario until 2019 and will be funded by the federal government in 2020 – 2025, after the Province under the Conservative government cancelled the program.

Through the program, Reed planted trees for over 150 landowners in Kawartha Lakes and surrounding municipalities. She established nearly 1300 acres of forest. These young forests sequester significant amounts of carbon every year and help to mitigate the effects of climate change.

A group of friends and family gathered to celebrate the achievement with speeches, champagne and cake. Letters of congratulations were received from several dignitaries; Andrea Horwath, Leader of the Official Opposition wrote to thank Reed “for the effort and passion you bring to the important work of helping grow our forests.”

She did not accomplished this alone, according to a press release. Over the last 10 years, Reed employed a number of workers, including her family; husband Paul and three children, Daniel 27, Sarah 24 and Jonathon 24, have all gotten their hands dirty each spring.

Reed, who is a registered professional forester, has planted trees in three provinces over a 35 year career (these are not counted in the one million).

As she travels, Reed will often take an indirect route to check on the progress of her older tree plantations. It doesn’t take long for the young seedlings to begin to look like a forest: birds and wildlife quickly move in, along with native wildflowers.