New Funding and a Year in Review for Trees Riverview

By Carol Thiessen, Trees Riverview

Just as the newly planted trees on Baltimore Road and Arnold Avenue are slowly putting down roots in our community, so too is Trees Riverview.

In 2021, our first full year as a local community organization dedicated to protect, restore and enhance the public tree canopy in Riverview, we oversaw the planting of 55 hackberry, elm, linden, hawthorn and Pyrus pear trees in late April. 

The young trees had to fight an endless summer of heat and drought but nearly all survived. Thank-you to Green Drop, who was contracted to plant and maintain the trees for two years, who had to water more frequently than expected. And hats off to the homeowners who put out their hoses to give the new trees extra waterings. 

Green Drop will do a walk through the neighbourhood with Trees Riverview in spring to determine if any tree has died–and will plant any necessary replacement trees. 

New Funding

In 2022, Trees Riverview’s goal is to plant an additional 20-30 public boulevard trees–and has already secured some funding to support this goal.

We are pleased to announce $5000 in funding from Assiniboine Credit Union to support Trees Riverview in developing a website to enable better communication on ways to protect and enhance the public tree canopy in Riverview.

Trees Riverview has also received $2000 from Red River Co-op to support tree planting and the website development in 2022. 

We continue to seek other funding options for our 2022 planting season–and have already submitted a funding application to Trees Canada. If you have a line on a great funding opportunity–or are a local business owner who would love to support the continued green health of our community–please get in touch at TreesRiverview@gmail.com.

City of Winnipeg Tree Budget

Despite government and community efforts to maintain our tree canopy, the city of Winnipeg is losing thousands of trees every year–an average of 5,500 public trees are removed annually. Yet just 2000 trees are planted per year on average. 

In December, Trees Riverview submitted a budget letter requesting the City support the goal of securing sustainable funding for our urban forest that is commensurate with the danger our trees are in--and the value that these trees provide all of us. 

While the budget increases won’t allow for the City to catch up on the backlog of tree planting, we are pleased that the Urban Forestry Department received an extra $4 million over two years in the City’s operating budget. As well, the public service is now required to report quarterly on efforts to access federal funding, such as from the 2 Billion Trees Program. 

See here to read Trees Riverview’s submission to the budget committee (scroll down to #12): https://clkapps.winnipeg.ca/dmis/ViewDoc.asp?DocId=21460&SectionId=&InitUrl=