Dr. Jane Goodall won’t be the only special guest at Greater Sudbury’s milestone planting of the city’s 10 millionth tree — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be here soon.
Sudbury.com has confirmed that the prime minister will at the 3 p.m. ceremony at the William Bell Gazebo in Bell Park where he will address the crowd and participate in the planting ceremony.
World-renowned scientist Jane Goodall is also joining the 3 p.m. celebration to film a segment for the upcoming IMAX film, “Reasons for Hope.”
The city’s regreening effort under which these 10 million trees have been planted since 1978 certainly qualifies as a reason for hope, Bigger told Sudbury.com.
“It’s not hopeless, things can be repaired, turned around in the environment, and look at what Sudbury has done,” Bigger said.
The city’s regreening effort has been ongoing since 1978 and has remained the product of various community and industry partners.
The Greater Sudbury Community Energy and Emissions Plan city council adopted in 2019 after declaring a climate emergency noted the importance of continuing the regreening effort as a means of carbon sequestration.
To that time, approximately 9.8 million trees had been planted on 24,811 hectares of barren land at an average density of 395 tree seedlings per hectare. The plan estimated that by replanting, the sequestration rate increases by an average of 1.1 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year.
“It is important to note that efforts must be maintained to refresh the existing tree stock to keep its carbon sequestration rate consistent,” according to the plan.
Approximately 252,500 trees were slated to be planted between 2021 and 2025, according to the city’s latest five-year plan, which includes a breakdown of the 32 species of trees included. The leading trees are the green alder and red oak, which will both see 50,000 planted.
