ReForest London eNews

 August 2006
In this issue:

Our summer maintenance projects
Tree Care Tips
Managing Buckthorn at Kiwanis Park
Fall 2006 deadline approaches
 Summer Maintenance Projects


Woodchips are used to help new trees get established.

ReForest London has been busy this summer taking care of our past projects.

Thanks to a new partnership with St. Leonard's Society, we've visited nearly all our public project sites to care for the trees and shrubs. Youth in the St. Leonard's program have helped us water, weed, and mulch our newly planted trees and shrubs. more info about this partnership

With funding from the City of London, we've also purchased 130 tree watering tubes. These tubes allow us to provide up to 25 gallons of water to our newly planted trees over a period of 2 weeks. more info about our maintenance program
Tree Care Tips

Planting trees is critical to maintaining our urban forest, but just as important is taking care of our existing trees.

Help us spread the word about caring for trees. Our website gives some tips on caring for your trees. The most important ideas:

  • water trees, especially new ones
  • keep the weed trimmer  and lawn mower away from the base of the tree
  • keep your trees mulched
  • stake your new trees properly

Watch The Londoner, Scene and the sides of London Transit busss for our tree care ads. Thanks to the City of London for funding for this advertising.

more tree care tips

 

This tree has been damaged by a weed trimmer.
Managing Buckthorn in Kiwanis Park

The Weed Wrench uses simple leverage to pull trees out of the ground, roots and all.

The leaf of a Common Buckthorn

Buckthorn is a highly invasive plant that is taking over many of the natural areas in London.

This summer, ReForest London removed buckthorn from a large area in Kiwanis Park. Buckthorn are hard to kill -- cutting it down doesn't work, as the tree will resprout even stronger from the stump. However, using a tool called a Weed Wrench, we pulled the buckthorn shrubs and trees right out of the ground. Those trees that were too large were girdled by either stripping a 3-inch band of bark around the tree or by attaching plastic tie wraps. Eventually these girdled trees will die.

A partnership with Youth Opportunities Unlimited helped us remove buckthorn in 3.8 hectares of the park.  YOU is an organization that helps youth find employment by offering job skills training and volunteer work experience. Our Buckthorn Removal Crew is made up of several paid members, and several YOU volunteers, three of whom we have hired after their volunteer work experience to continue to work on the project. 

more info about this project
Fall 2006 deadline approaches

August 15 is the deadline for all fall project plans. Our project process is outlined here.

In late September we'll begin planting. Watch for our fall calendar to see how you can become involved. We'll need your help to plant the hundreds of trees we'll be planting from September through November.

 

 ReForest London, PO Box 1852, Stn B, London, ON N6A 5H9 | 519.936.9548 | info@reforestlondon.ca