Mount Forest Green Team to host third annual Family Tree Trust event
Sept. 19 event aims to boost tree canopy awareness
MOUNT FOREST – The Mount Forest Green Team’s Tree Trust chapter is hosting its third annual Family Tree Trust event on Sept. 19 at the Mount Forest Cemetery on Sligo Road.
The event runs 10am to 2pm and is open to families, organizers stated in a release.
Local council members, along with 2026 municipal election candidates, have been invited to attend and speak.
It’s anticipated the family-friendly event will include face painting, a food truck, art, music and dancers.
Organizers hope the event will create greater awareness of the impact mature trees have on personal wellness and on local culture and community.
“Each year we manage to expand our audience and education of our need to preserve and protect our local nature spaces, especially our veteran trees,” organizers state in news release about the event.
Organizers said mature trees provide oxygen, shade and natural habitat equivalent to roughly 300 saplings.
The cemetery was chosen as the site to raise awareness of the need to diversify both the species and the age of trees at the burial ground, the release states.
Organizers said age and species diversity is essential to preserving the canopy in the face of threats including disease, insect invasion and the decline of older trees due to age and potential lack of maintenance.
According to the Tree Trust, the Mount Forest Green Team now represents a chapter of the organization, and its aim is to “justify the name ‘forest’ in Mount Forest.”
Tree Trust is a program of the Elora Environment Centre, established in June 2019, that operates as a platform allowing community-based chapters to raise charitable donations to preserve local legacy trees.
Chapters work with Tree Trust-approved arborists to carry out work such as crown reduction, deadwood removal and retrenchment intended to extend the life of mature trees.
The program has grown to include more than a dozen chapters in southern Ontario.
More information is available at treetrust.ca/mount-forest.
