The province is ramping up tree production over the next six years, following in the footsteps of a federal program called 2 Billion Trees.
The national program aims to plant that many trees by 2031. Provincially, there are four programs that will plant 300,000 additional trees per year. That’s on top of the 1 million trees that were already being planted annually.
The P.E.I. 2 Billion Trees program is run by the provincial Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action.
“These trees will help us reach our net zero goals as well as hold carbon, create buffer zones, help with wildlife corridors, and generally increase our green spaces on the Island,” said Hailey Blacquiere, the 2BT co-ordinator for Prince Edward Island.
“Any Islander that has a property that’s over 2 1/2 acres can apply to our landowner and agriculture stream, and anybody with a property lower than 2 1/2 acres can apply to our watershed and smaller sites stream,” Blacquiere said.
“We cover pretty well every Islander as long as they are looking to get at least 50 trees in the ground.”
Blacquiere said the trees will be saplings spaced two metres apart, and are all native species: red maple, white pine, yellow birch, white spruce, white birch and eastern hemlock.
