Citizen Pruners

Our newest volunteer program is
about to get underway. The volunteers have been trained by arborist Chris
Morrison this past week and are ready to hit the street of Fergus and Elora
and prune some trees!

Many of you will be familiar with
our Tree Inventory program, but this year we decided to turn things up a
notch and introduce a pilot project – which has only been organized once
before in Thunder Bay – Citizen Pruners.

The goal of
Citizen Pruners is to educate a group of volunteers on how to properly prune
and maintain a tree. Over the years, NeighbourWoods has planted many trees in
our community, but tree care does not stop there. It is extremely important
to prune young trees – before small problems grow into bigger problems; and
want our trees to last as long as possible in our urban environment. So, that
means pruning is a necessity!

Our group of volunteers spent
two nights last week learning about tree anatomy and proper pruning technique
with arborist Chris Morrison; and with one more field-training night, the eve
of pruning is upon us!

So, throughout the months of June
and July, a team of 20 volunteers and 4 arborists will be going around Fergus
and Elora, wearing orange t-shirts and pruning the young trees – which will
help support their healthy growth in the future.

Make sure
to stay tuned for more news about our Citizen Pruners Team!