Trees, please! National Forest Week is September 17-23

Considering how much we love our trees in Guelph, we’re excited to celebrate National Forest Week this year, which runs from September 17 to 23, 2023.

National Forest Week is an annual campaign put on by the Canadian Institute of Forestry to celebrate Canada’s forest heritage and to raise awareness about this valuable and renewable resource. This year’s theme is “supporting biological diversity.”

In 2023, we’re on target to plant 20,000 native trees and shrubs in parks, public spaces and natural areas with the help of community partners!

In collaborating with community partners, we’ll also engage over 10,000 volunteers in 60 community planting events in parks and natural areas in 2023! We also launched our Park Stewards program this year and have 7 community groups that have signed up so far to help year-round to care for natural or “wild” areas in parks city-wide, including planting trees and caring for native plants.

Fun facts about Guelph’s trees:

There are almost 3 million trees in Guelph
Since 2013, approximately 50,000 trees have been planted in the city with community groups and volunteers
On average each year, City forestry crews carry out roughly 6,000 tree work requests (planting, removing and trimming)
There’s almost an equal split of trees on private or public property (53 per cent and 47 per cent, respectively)
More than 50 species of native trees and 50 species of native shrubs are planted at naturalization and restoration sites. White Pine, Sugar Maple, White Cedar, Red Oak and Bur Oak top the list for native tree species at planted in Guelph.