Hundreds of trees to be planted in Assiniboine Park with new funding
The Assiniboine Park Conservancy is getting a boost from the federal government to plant more trees in the park.
Hundreds of trees are coming to Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park with the help of some new money.
On Tuesday, the Government of Canada and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities announced joint funding of nearly $17 million to plant over 77,000 new trees around the country.
The money will go towards 27 projects, including $150,000 to Assiniboine Park Conservancy, which will use the funds to plant 600 trees in Assiniboine Park.
According to the government, the new trees will improve Assiniboine Park's biodiversity and forest health, while addressing the loss of trees from Dutch elm disease. It will also help the city achieve its target for tree canopy coverage.
Gerald Dieleman, senior director of horticulture, said the news is exciting for the team at Assiniboine Park Conservancy.
'It's a goal here to increase our tree coverage across the park, and this funding helps support that,' he said.
Dieleman said the conservancy plans to plant tree species that will thrive over the next 25 years, including mountain ash, Manitoba maples, lindens, and hackberries. He added the planting will take place over the next three years.
'Losing trees to Dutch elm disease, elm trees in particular, is a large concern because elms are the dominant species across the city and in the park too,' he said.
'These replacement trees are different species, and that's one of the goals of this program—to diversify the plantings across the park and the zoo, which is what we are doing here.'
The government money will also be used to plant more than 19,000 trees in Kitchener, Ont.; 1,200 trees in Charlottetown, PEI; and 3,750 in Ottawa.
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