The City of Regina was giving away tree seedlings to celebrate being named a “Tree City of the World” by the United Nations for a third year in a row.
Russell Eirich, the manager of Open Space Services for the City of Regina, said the event was to also celebrate Arbor Day on the first day of June.
“Last November, council declared that the first Wednesday of June should be Regina Arbor Day,” said Eirich. “As part of that celebration, we’re giving away 1000 trees to residents to plant in their yards.”
Hundreds of Regina residents lined up to get their hands on some free trees, including residents Jody and Jesse Robson who planned to plant some raspberry trees to continue family traditions.
“It is very important for us to plant raspberry trees for our kids because our grandmother had them in her yard,” Jody explained. “Unfortunately when she passed the household, we didn’t get any of the bushes so it’ll be like starting our own raspberry patch in our own backyard.”
Residents had the opportunity to get their hands on a variety of trees including saskatoon, cherry, walnut, and chokeberry.
With inflation rising more and more people are turning to their gardens for food.
“Our environment is changing, the whole world, and everyone wants to be more sustainable and eat their own fruit and have their own fruits available in their own yards,” said a forestry technician with the city of Regina.
The city is encouraging residents to continue the tree planting traditions Regina was established on.
Settled on treeless prairie grasslands, Regina has now been designated a “Tree City of the World” by the United Nations. (Luke Simard/CTV News Regina)
“This community was founded on treeless prairie,” Eirich explained. “As a community this really speaks to generations of residents valuing trees and this community has over 500,000 trees both public and private.”
Eirich adds that there are many benefits to having trees on your property.
“There is storm water prevention, heating and cooling benefits, carbon sequestration, and mental health benefits to it as well,” said Eirich. “So trees are just really important for a healthy community.”
If residents missed out on grabbing seedlings the city of Regina plans to offer another 1000 trees to residents in the fall in honor of National Tree Day.
The city plans to plant an additional 600 trees this summer around Regina.