Hamilton man aims to plant one million trees within the next five years

A Hamilton man has a very ambitious plan to plant one million trees around the city within the next five years.

He’s been trying to get the plan off the ground for the last few years, but has finally made some progress thanks to the help of a city councillor.

Lee Fairbanks is hoping to plant trees – a lot of trees.

“We have the opportunity to beautify the city, increase the canopy towards the goal of 40 per cent and provide all the health benefits you get from trees and natures,” said Fairbanks.

The founder of “One Million Trees in the City” started this plan with a smaller project at Vincent Massey Park, but faced repeated delays.

Now the goal has ballooned to plant 200,000 donated trees per year for the next five years to hit a million.

“What we’re asking each councillor is to step up in their ward, designate parks, work with us, and we’ll get together with forestry staff and we’ll design the changes,” said Fairbanks.

Mark Tadeson, the Hamilton city councilor for Ward 11, was the breakthrough Fairbanks needed to get his project off the ground.

“I’m just somebody who cares about supporting my citizens and trying to make Hamilton that much better and I think that Lee’s project – it warrants attention,” said Tadeson.

The tree planting project at Mount Hope Park is expected to begin in the fall.

It’s going to include trees and bushes along the perimeter of the park, along with some tree clusters over by Upper James Street.

“Lee had some ideas, the park supervisor had some ideas,” said Tadeson. “They met with some common ground and picked out the spots and I think its going to be a great project.”

“It’s the first one for the city, so I’m really proud that we are doing it here in Mount Hope,” said Tadeson.

Robyn Pollard, with the City of Hamilton’s Forestry and Horticulture Team, says that Fairbank’s idea is feasible, but the timeline is a challenge.

“There’s a lot of land,” said Pollard. “That’s a lot of trees and it’s a lot of resources to ensure that one million are planted and cared for.”

Hamilton already has a city-wide target of planting 50,000 trees each year through its Urban Forest Strategy, with the city’s portion making up 20,000.

Last year, they surpassed their overall goal with the help of the community.

“We really are relying on our NGOs (non-government organization) and all our community partners to assist this,” said Pollard. “This is a massive undertaking to double the canopy and we really encourage community partnership.”

Pollard says the next steps would be for Fairbanks to formalize a plan with the city and outline how they can help out.

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