WEST CARLETON – Partner with the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority and have your idle land filled with trees.

“Our hardworking forestry team has wrapped up another successful tree planting season, and they’re already looking ahead to next year,” the RVCA released in a statement. “RVCA is now booking site visits with landowners wishing to reforest their retired farm fields or otherwise empty and idle lands.”

The low-cost, full-service program includes free site visits, custom planting plans, site preparation, tree planting, follow-up assessments and maintenance to give the seedlings the best chance of survival. All of this is available for only $0.15 per tree, or $120 an acre. RVCA and its planting partners cover all other costs.

“Increasing forest cover is critical to watershed health, but so much of the land is privately owned,” said forestry program manager Scott Danford. “This program offers landowners easy and affordable tree planting services while helping us meet our larger watershed management goals.” 

This year Danford’s team planted about 200,000 trees across the region. The RVCA has planted 6.4 million trees since 1984 and aims to hit 6.5 million in 2020.

“The RVCA staff have been a pleasure to work with since we started in 2014,” said Maberly landowner Peter Ginsberg. “I’m very happy with this program that made it possible for us to support the planting of almost 12,000 trees on our property.”

The forestry team is booking site visits this summer to plan for the 2020 spring planting season. The planting area must be at least one acre in size, suitable for tree planting and the landowner must be willing to plant 1,000 trees or more.

“We have several community-minded partners who support our tree planting program,” said Danford.

Planting partners include the City of Ottawa’s Green Acres program and Forests Ontario, Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority, Eastern Ontario Model Forest, Pratt & Whitney Canada, McGarry Funeral Homes, Stingray LiVE 88.5, Carleton Refrigeration, Pratt & Whitney Canada and the Rideau Valley Conservation Foundation also contribute to the forestry program to keep costs low for landowners.

Tree planting is one of the most practical ways to take care of our watershed and the wider environment. RVCA’s reforestation programs are a great way for landowners to improve their property by:

• Protecting soil from erosion
• Improving water quality
• Reducing the risk of flooding
• Carbon sequestration
• Improving wildlife habitat
• Increasing biodiversity
• Water conservation, and so much more

If you want to plant trees, book a site visit or to get more information, call Scott Danford at 613-692-3571 or 1-800-267-3504 ext. 1175 or email scott.danford@rvca.ca.