History

In the fall of 2021, SWR launched our pilot microforest project that aims to encourage organizations across Waterloo Region to donate land on which trees can be planted.

Made possible by funding from the Ages Foundation, our first project saw volunteers from GrandBridge Energy and EY Waterloo join us to plant dozens of trees at Manchester Public School and 115 new trees at Avenue Road Public School in Cambridge.

Together, we planted 11 different native species of trees of varying sizes. As those trees grow, they’ll create a vibrant microforest with long-term environmental and aesthetic benefits for the school, surrounding neighbourhood, and community. 

The schools can use the space for outdoor activities and programming, while the forest will absorb the heat from parking lots close by, reduce stormwater runoff, and provide habitat for local wildlife, among other vital functions. As our Executive Director Tova Davidson noted in the article linked to above, “Trees are our most reliable, most dependable, proven way of pulling carbon out of the air. So the more trees we have, the better off we are.”

As a recent Statistics Canada study showed, Waterloo Region is one of a small number of urban areas in Canada that has successfully protected the amount of green space in the community over the last 20 years. Small but meaningful projects such as microforest planting will help the region meet their urban tree cover goals and continue to keep our home as green as possible.