P.E.I. speeds up tree planting with new programs and greenhouses 

The province is ramping up tree production over the next six years, following in the footsteps of a federal program called 2 Billion Trees.

The national program aims to plant that many trees by 2031. Provincially, there are four programs that will plant 300,000 additional trees per year. That's on top of the 1 million trees that were already being planted annually. 

The P.E.I. 2 Billion Trees program is run by the provincial Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action. "These trees will help us reach our net zero goals as well as hold carbon, create buffer zones, help with wildlife corridors, and generally increase our green spaces on the Island," said Hailey Blacquiere, the 2BT co-ordinator for Prince Edward Island.

"Any Islander that has a property that's over 2 1/2 acres can apply to our landowner and agriculture stream, and anybody with a property lower than 2 1/2 acres can apply to our watershed and smaller sites stream," Blacquiere said.

"We cover pretty well every Islander as long as they are looking to get at least 50 trees in the ground."

Blacquiere said the trees will be saplings spaced two metres apart, and are all native species: red maple, white pine, yellow birch, white spruce, white birch and eastern hemlock. 

She said the native species have some resilience to climate change, and they do very well across the Island in different habitats.

The trees are being grown at the J. Frank Gaudet Tree Nursery in Charlottetown, which has three new greenhouses to help support the increased production for the 2BT program. 

Blacquiere said the program was in the works before the damage from post-tropical storm Fiona in September 2022, but will help replace some of the trees destroyed by the super-strong weather system. 

"Initially, it might not make a huge difference because we are trying to recoup from Fiona," Blacquiere said of the trees being planted now, before adding: "It will help, regardless."

Blacquiere said municipalities can also get involved in the 2 Billion Trees program, if they're looking to buy large-caliper trees for their green spaces and residential programs. Those are taller tree saplings, with a bigger trunk diameter. 

She said seven municipalities are involved so far, and there have been more than 250 applications to the landowner streams.  The program began in 2022 with support from the federal government, which is picking up half of the $3.3 million cost over three years. A second phase of the program is expected to take the program to 2031. 

The P.E.I. Watershed Alliance has been contracted to deliver one of the programs, to smaller sites and riparian zones — land located along bodies of water such as lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands. The group is doing site assessments now, with the goal of selecting locations for planting in 2025. 

"We start with asking the landowner what their goals are, what species they like, and which ones maybe they don't want on their property because they might already have some," said co-ordinator Kassidy Matheson.