The Highway Of Heroes campaign is planting two million trees for all Canadians that have served during times of conflict since Confederation.
The campaign started by Mark Cullen will see trees within 30 km either side of a corridor that follows Highway 401 from the American border in Windsor to the Quebec border in Cornwall by 2022.
Locally this includes Guelph, Fergus and Elora.
“Through this campaign, you could have a piece of the world’s largest living tribute while doing your part to protect our environment, beautify our communities and honour our Canadian Heroes,” said Cullen in a press release.
Private landowners, conservation authorities, stewardship groups, municipalities and forestry consultants are all eligible to apply.
Private landowners can apply for a funding subsidy through the Private Landowner Partnership Program — a partnership between the Highway of Heroes Tree Campaign, Forests Ontario and their 50 Million Tree Program—that provides financial assistance to landowners so they can plant trees on their property. Anyone with space to plant a minimum of 500 trees within about 30 km of Highway 401 is eligible for the fund.
The subsidy will help support site preparation, tree seedlings, planting and survival assessments.
The executive director of the Highway of Heroes campaign, Mike Hurley, said the original goal in 2015 was to plant 117,00 trees along the highway by planting one tree for every life lost in the Canadian armed forces.
“As we quickly forged relationships with those serving, friends and families that have connections to the military. We very quickly came to the realization that we should be planting trees for everybody who ever served,” said Hurley.
After planting 100,000 trees already on areas directly connected to the highway between Toronto and Trenton, the campaign expanded their reach.
“We were getting so much interest from communities outside of that, that we wanted to open it up and allow everyone to participate who was showing interest,” said Hurley.
Hurley said the subsidy by made by the Private Landowner Partnership Program made a huge difference in the program.
“We found that it converted a lot of landowners that were maybe sitting on the fence to add a tree to the property because of the cost,” said Hurley.
With a subsidized cost of $1.70 per tree, Hurley said approximately 80 per cent to 90 per cent of tree costs will be covered.
“From our perspective, its taken a little while to get going but in the real big picture and the grand scheme of things, this is an idea that has come to fruition in a really short period of time when you think about it,” said Hurley.
“The fact that we’ll be completed this campaign in less than three years really speaks volumes to the public’s appetite not only to plant more trees but also to do something special to honour those that have served in the armed forces.”
