Some of these trees at Baker Nurseries in Bayfield will be in Goderich Trees fall planting.
HEATHER BOA Bullet News GODERICH – A two-day marathon by volunteers to plant trees on private properties to replace those lost in last year’s tornado will wind down Goderich Trees projects, its co-founder announced to Goderich Town Council last night.
“We’ve actually had to go knocking on doors to find places to plant the trees. I guess you could say we’ve been too successful. If that’s the only problem we have, I’ll take it,” said Luke Elliott, who has spent the last year working with a small army of volunteers gather donations and replant more than 100 trees, some as tall as 8 meters. He received support from the business community, including a $10,000 donation from United Communities Credit Union after garnering the highest number of votes and got the judges’ nod to win the MyUnited Online Community Contest.
He said he doesn’t know what will come next for the unincorporated group.
“It’s important to note I didn’t do this by myself. I’m thankful for everyone in my own community to make this reality,” he said.
Council members commended Goderich Trees for the work it’s done.
“I think you’ve done an amazing job and helped an awful lot of citizens who lost a lot of trees,” said Judy Crawford, who is a town councillor.
While Goderich Trees has planted more than 100 trees on private properties, the Town of Goderich is working to plant more than 150 trees on public property, at a cost of $611,000.
On Saturday, Nov. 17 and Sunday, Nov. 18, Goderich Trees volunteers will work alongside Trees for Benmiller and “eco-volun-tourists” from reTREEt America for a final tree-planting blitz. Volunteers from reTREEt America, who combine bicycle riding with tree planting in communities devastated by natural disaster, will arrive in Goderich on Friday evening for their first international event. They’ll start with a potluck dinner hosted by Goderich Trees, with a presentation that tells the story of the Goderich and area tornado and its aftermath. Saturday, they will plant trees in Goderich and take part in the town’s Santa Claus parade. Sunday, if the weather’s good, they’ll ride their bikes to Benmiller for a day of planting mature trees.
Recently, Elliott planted trees with reTREEt volunteers in Lancaster, TX, which was tossed by a number of tornados in April 2012. He said people warmed up to him when they heard about the tornado of Aug. 21, 2011.
