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South Simcoe Streams Network volunteers plant trees around the region

October 28, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

It only takes a few minutes to learn how to do it – planting trees and shrubs along local waterways provides decades, or possibly hundreds of years of protection for rivers, streams and fish species. 

Tree planting events hosted by the South Simcoe Streams Network and its partners took place around the region on Saturday, Oct. 15, with groups planting along waterways in Mulmur, Shelburne, and Loretto. Another event was planned for Alliston on Oct. 22.

Planting shrubs and trees along waterways helps provide stability to shorelines and enhances fish and wildlife habitat. Trees provide shade that is vital to some species.

Volunteers arrived on-site near Loretto at 9:00 a.m., and were shown the correct way to plant the trees and shrubs. Around 25 volunteers took part in the Loretto operation.

The group planted a total of 162 potted stock to start the tree buffer planting along the restored shoreline. Funding for the project was provided by the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Dufferin Simcoe Land Stewardship Network. The trees were provided in part through a partnership with Somerville Nurseries.

The site was located a considerable distance off of the main road behind a pasture area where the North Nottawasaga River makes several winding turns.

The shrubs and trees planted were done in an area that has already seen work with tree stumps and old Christmas trees placed along the riverbank for stability. Other work has been done with large machinery to shore up the banks and create new channels.

“All these trees are being planted here by volunteers,” explained Silvia Pedrazzi, environment liaison for the South Simcoe Streams Network. “The last part of the river restoration is planting along the shoreline. This provides future tree cover. Around two years ago we did a lot of work along this river and re-shaped it using an excavator. This is just one of our restoration areas. The reason we are here at this location is because the water is very cold and rich coming out of the escarpment. This area is the first open space where its been farmed and the trees have been removed. It’s still farmed here so we work with the farmer to fence out the cattle and things like that. Where there’s no more trees and nothing to hold the banks in place, you get erosion.”

The Nottawasaga River is home to a variety of species of fish and supports other wildlife.

“This is a major migratory route for Chinook salmon,” Ms. Pedrazzi explained. “They come up to the headwaters to spawn. They need a good gravel bed – if you have too much erosion and too much sediment getting into the stream, the gravel beds are covered in silt so they have less places to lay their eggs. We try to stabilize the banks to take away the erosion factor.”

There are several methods used to stabilize riverbanks.

“We’ve harvested dead ash trees and other things from the site and we use the root wads. They’ve been placed with an excavator and side by side, so when the water comes rushing down, it bounces off the root wads and doesn’t create any erosion – the soil is solid,” Ms. Pedrazzi said. “There is a lot less sediment coming into the stream because it’s stable.”

Volunteers were very eager to help out and do their part to help the environment.

Several of the volunteers were high school students and the work goes toward filling volunteer hours needed to graduate.

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