TD Tree Day in Windsor

By Emma Butler

The Little River Corridor  has 300 more native trees thanks to TD members and volunteers. On Oct. 20 about 100 people participated in TD’s fall tree planting.

TD Friends of the Environment Foundation (FEF) is a national charity that helps fund environmental projects in local areas. Windsor’s branch has been doing tree days for more than 20 years. Other organizations who showed their support for this event were the Essex Region Conservation Authority, the Detroit River Canadian Cleanup, Caesars Windsor and the Little River Enhancement Group.

TD Tree Day is a contributor to The Ready Commitment with a goal of planting one million trees by 2030. Since 2010, TD has planted over 300,000 trees and shrubs all across Canada.

Tracy Sansom has been a branch manager for 26 years with TD Canada Trust and is a member of TD FEF. She was the one of the members who organized the event. Sansom said all the money donated to the branches are used for local projects, TD Canada Trust also covers any cost incurred.

“This is a really good turnout. In different years we get different numbers of people and they give us different numbers of trees. Within a couple of hours they’ll be planted,” said Sansom. “It’s all about planting the trees. There was about 100 people who registered today.”

The Essex Region Conservation Authority provided the trees. Some of the trees being planted are red maple, American sycamore, borrow, oak, red oak, swamp white oak and hackberry, which are ideal for wetland areas. Event coordinator was Gina Panuzio who was eager to see more trees being planted.

“Essex County could use more trees. We have a goal across the region to have 12 per cent forest coverage. Anytime we do this with the community it’s a really great way to get people out into nature, learning about trees and having leadership in the community for helping all these organizations working together to reach that goal,” said Panuzio.

Lucy Seidl, a TD member was there with her 13-year-old son, Ryan.

“I think it’s great. It’s helping the environment and also for Ryan to get his hours,” said Lucy.

“I’m here to get my volunteer hours for school. I need 40 hours before the end of my high school career,” said Ryan.

If you would like to be apart of this project, TD does these events all across Canada. The next tree planting is in Leamington.