Though “the weather outside is frightful”, Kindersley uses these months to plan ahead for the warm and sunny days of spring and summer. As a part of Canada’s 150th celebrations, Kindersley is partnering with the Government of Canada, Tree Canada, and Canadian National Railway (CN) to plant roughly 150 trees for visual, sound and windbreakers along Highway 21 and Railway Avenue.
Mayor Rob Perkins, John Newling, Kindersley’s Manager of Parks and Megan Quinn, a representative from Tree Canada officiated Kindersley’s entrance into the project by unveiling a plaque donated by CN Rail. The representative for CN Rail and our First Nations were not able to be in attendance.
The Tree Canada #150 community project was kicked off in August this year as Tree Canada announced that it was partnering with the Government of Canada and CN Rail to initiate tree plantings in 150 communities scattered across every province and territory in Canada. Over 500 communities, including Kindersley, submitted their application, and Kindersley was one of the fruitful entries.
“It’s been a successful project so far,” said Megan Quinn, representative of Tree Canada, “I’ve been anywhere from Vancouver to PEI to as far north as Iqaluit in Nunavut.” Tree Canada is a non-profit charity dedicated to improving the lives of Canadians by planting and nurturing trees. According to their website, they’ve planted more than 80 million trees since 1992; not bad for a project only 25 years old.
L-R Joe Newling, Megan Quinn, and Mayor Rod Perkins hold flags symbolizing the three partners in the #Canada 150 project
“All across the world, trees are a symbol of growth, strength, sustainability, hope, and peace,” Michael Rosen, President of Tree Canada said in a recent press statement. “Our #Canada150 tree-planting celebrations are a perfect way to commemorate Canada’s legacy in a positive, meaningful and lasting way, all while engaging people from coast to coast to coast.”
As a part of the project, each community received roughly $5,000 in grants, and are required to plant at least three ceremonial trees, one to symbolize our nation, one to symbolize the province, and one to pay tribute to our First Nations.
For Kindersley, our tree to symbolize the nation is the Manitoba Maple, and white birch trees double as a symbol of both the province of Saskatchewan and our First Nations. These three trees have already been planted to initiate the project, while the other near 150 trees will be planted next year. According to Newling, the new belt of trees will likely contain more types of trees than the maple and white birch, but the town has yet to finalize the decision.
Kindersley has already been working on providing a tree break for the residents along Highway 21 and Railway Avenue by planting a double row of caraganas along Railway Avenue. The new project aims to connect the belt along Railway with the mature belt along Highway 21.
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Image Source: Mallorie Rast/Kindersley Social
