By Judy Yaworsky and L.J. Ridgeway, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, May 7, 2019
Let’s avoid destroying these trees
Re: Nursery says it must destroy millions of trees, May 5.
I don’t understand why Kemptville’s Ferguson Tree Centre has to destroy millions of trees because of the lack of government funding. Get creative. If thousands of us can volunteer to fill more than one million sandbags, there is no doubt that many of us can rally again to plant the 800,000 seedlings that the centre aimed to plant.
Since the cheapest seedling will cost 58 cents, I am sure many would volunteer to plant trees and pay the centre at least 58 cents for them to coordinate this effort. That way, they aren’t out of pocket, all these trees get planted and we volunteers feel great about doing our little bit to help our environment.
(...)Some ways to save these trees
I regret that the Ontario tree-planting program has been cancelled. That said, the Kemptville-based tree centre should think more creatively about the use for trees before simply “destroying” them (which won’t be without cost). A nominal charge like $1, or even giving them away in some systematic fashion, serves a good public use, and gives at least a modest return, even if just goodwill.
https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/letters/todays-letters-on-tree-planting-and-floodplains