Turn of Events
I must admit that I am kind of astounded. Last weekend Trees For Life planted 500 trees at the foot of the old Don River, in Biidaasige Park, Toronto. I say “old” Don River as I knew it when I was a kid as a “dead” river. It was so polluted that no fish or humans swam in it.
The Don has a new life. It is cleaner, and the delta where it meets Lake Ontario is thriving with wildlife including fish and kayakers. Come summer don’t be surprised to find some swimmers. Now: on its banks, a new forest of native trees.
We had almost 100 volunteer tree planters, from all walks of life, including one who travelled over from the Toronto Island, and another who flew in for the tree planting from Lincoln, Nebraska. Amy Lester. Why, you might ask, would an American fly to Toronto to plant trees?
Amy works for the Arbor Day Foundation, the largest not for profit, volunteer driven, tree planting organization in the world. She shared the story that the original Arbor Day was created by John Rosenow, a newspaper editor, who was concerned at the lack of trees in Nebraska, in 1872. A hundred years later the Arbor Day Foundation was formed, with a mandate to “inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees.”
Amy made the effort to join Trees For Life last weekend because we formed a partnership in 2025 in a mutual effort to maximize the urban tree canopy in Canada. It is through this partnership that some wonderful things have occurred. The Arbor Day Foundation worked with us to create public tree planting opportunities in Vancouver and Toronto to celebrate soccer, through “a small organization” called FIFA.
FIFA brought out a number of volunteers, including the good people of VISA, who showed up last weekend to volunteer to plant trees (and ask a lot of very good questions about TFL and why we do what we do).
In addition, we are working with the City of Toronto to access public land that needs tree cover. The goal, we were reminded, is to have a 40% tree canopy in the city by 2050. Currently it is about 27%.
Our tree planting collaboration with Arbor Day Foundation in 2026 includes more public tree planting in Calgary and Edmonton.
The Magic of Collaboration
Several months ago, we were connected with another group of fantastic partners with the Kubota and the CHL, looking to celebrate the the Memorial Cup in Kelowna. This past weekend our Executive Director Marina Dimitriadis flew to Kelowna to plant a ceremonial tree with officials from the CHL, Kubota, the City of Kelowna, and members of our Canadian Armed Forces. A new Hero Forest will be planted, paying tribute to the Memorial Cup’s origins as a remembrance to fallen Canadian military personnel who dedicated their lives in service to Canada. A public tree planting is planned for fall of 2026.
Through the CHL we have collaborated with Kubota and the City of Kelowna to plant more trees (you can make a donation and dedicate a tree here).
This spring we will have supported over 20 tree planting events in seven provinces.
We will have planted several thousand trees.
But most importantly, we will have introduced the activity of tree planting to thousands of Canadian volunteers, many of whom have never dug a hole to plant a tree before.
Perhaps more important than the number of trees planted by TFL are the number of Canadians who have volunteered to plant them. Why? Cause we are building community.
And Canada is a community of communities.
True, trees provide myriad economic, human health and environmental benefits. It is likely not necessary for me to list these benefits as Canadians are better informed about them than at any time in our history.
Based on the volunteers that I have met, the donors and the corporate sponsors who support us, I know that most people need no convincing that this is a good idea.
Back to the Arbor Day Foundation. Visit their website and you find all kinds of interesting stuff, including their mission to plant, nurture and celebrate trees by, “relentlessly delivering value, we lead toward a world where trees are used to solve issues critical to survival”.
THAT is Trees For Life also. I hope that Amy and her amazing team don’t mind if I borrow their messaging and make it our own. Cause it fits.
As ever yours,
Mark Cullen
