Spring is in the air, and shovels are in the ground, as the season of planting begins for Reep Green Solutions’ Backyard Tree Planting Program. The first few trees for the program were planted on April 29.
“We did two backyard tree plantings. Then we did a planting event with a school, as well. We planted seven trees there,” said Ashlynn Fleming, Reep’s tree program manager.
Any residents of Cambridge, Waterloo, Kitchener, Guelph and the Township of Woolwich can apply for trees in their yard through Reep at a subsidized cost. Both Kitchener and Cambridge cover the cost of the trees, making the program free for residents in those municipalities.
The program focuses on planting in yards because this is where the majority of available tree-planting space is in the region. Fleming added that the program would also help deliver the benefits of trees to residents.
“Trees provide habitat for wildlife, they sequester carbon dioxide, they filter air and water pollutants, they help mitigate stormwater flooding by absorbing water. They provide aesthetic benefits, and also [foster] things like connection to place,” said Fleming.
While the program has been running since 2019, Woolwich Township was added to the list of eligible communities just last fall as part of a pilot project funded by the Region of Waterloo’s Community Environmental Fund.
“Our first season was last fall, and then we’re running a second part this spring, so we still have some spots left. We’re just looking to get the word out to fill the rest of those spots and hopefully see if there’s demand to keep the program going longer term,” said Fleming.
Woolwich is part of the plot project because of the township’s desire to increase its tree canopy.
“The townships typically have a lower tree canopy recovery than the cities in the Region of Waterloo,” said Fleming.
She noted that Elmira’s tree canopy coverage is 16 per cent, whereas the average across municipalities in the region is 27 per cent. Part of the reason for Elmira’s low tree coverage is the lack of big mature trees near sections of development.
“I think it’s also tricky in the townships, too, when it comes to prioritizing budgets for things like an urban forestry team. Often, the townships have a little bit less staff who are able to be dedicated to that kind of stuff than the municipalities, which often have big federal grants to work on tree planting. So I think it’s a combination of those factors,” explained Fleming.
Interested residents can register online for the program. Once registered, they get an onsite consultation of their yard from an arborist at Reep. Trees are then planted as long as the yard meets the space requirements.
“You do need a minimum amount of space for a tree, like 100 square feet for a smaller tree and 225 square feet for a medium or large tree,” explained Fleming.
“We also have minimum distances that we need to keep away from things like fences or hard surfaces, so that as the tree gets older and bigger, it doesn’t damage any property.”
Reep requires that trees be planted at least five feet from property lines or fences, seven feet from hard surfaces such as decks, and 10 feet from building foundations.
All the trees planted for the program are native species. Most are deciduous varieties (trees that shed their leaves each year), such as red oak, tulip trees, ironwood and sugar maples. There are two evergreen varieties available, white pine and white spruce.
“We picked the varieties that offer an array of different characteristics that people might be looking for in a tree,” said Fleming.
“We have a few different evergreen species and some deciduous ones that get to different sizes depending on whether people are looking for an ornamental tree, a big shade tree, bright red fall colours, or yellow fall colours. We have ones that grow in full sun, part sun or shade to meet all those different conditions that might be in a backyard.”
One of the focuses of this year’s backyard planting is getting trees into low-income neighbourhoods in municipalities like Kitchener. Reep uses available light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data, gathered using laser pulses to map surfaces, to identify which neighbourhoods have high or low tree cover.
“Then we look at those areas of low cover, and also areas where they’re the highest proportion of equity-deserving population, so like low-income or visible-minority populations and where there’s low tree cover and high equity-deserving populations, those get identified as areas for free tree planting to reduce barriers to participating in the program,” said Fleming.
Identifying these areas is important because while a municipality can have a tree canopy cover of 27 per cent, this does not mean the trees are evenly distributed throughout each neighbourhood.
“Trees are usually unevenly distributed across cities. So, there are areas with closer to 40 per cent canopy cover, for example, which tend to be older, wealthier neighbourhoods, and then there are areas with only nine per cent. It really varies across the city,” said Fleming,
“This year, we’re going to a lot more of those nine per cent area canopy cover kind of spots, just because of the community canopy program and trying to target tree planting to lower canopy areas.”
Reep is currently accepting applications for their backyard tree program, and interested residents can apply online at www.reepgreen.ca/trees/#apply.
By Meg Deak, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on May 07, 2026 at 09:07
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