Photos: Volunteers plant 150 trees and shrubs along Junction Creek

Approximately 30 volunteers came out to plant trees along Junction Creek in Garson on Saturday for a TD Tree Days event

Saturday’s rains were exactly why now’s a great time to plant trees, Junction Creek Stewardship Committee executive director Miranda Vertanen said.

(More photos below)

“There’s a lot of great rain happening,” she said, noting that it’ll make for excellent ground conditions for the 150 trees and shrubs volunteers were planting to take root.

They’ll remain dormant for the winter and then take off again in the spring.

Approximately 30 volunteers, many of whom from the TD Bank, came out to participate in the TD Tree Days event in Garson, where they banded out along a path adjacent to Junction Creek.

“Everything that happens here will impact everything downstream; all of the communities, all of the ecosystems,” Vertanen said of the location they targeted for the day’s efforts.

Brook trout like cool, healthy waters, she said, and “Having the shoreline habitat with tall trees and great underbrush helps shade the water and keep it cool and healthy.”

The day was sponsored by TD Bank, with support from others, including discounted plants from Southview Greenhouse Growers.

The trees and shrubs planted are all native, Vertanen said, including red oak, basswood, silver maple, red maple, serviceberry, swamp rose, spirea, red pine, white pine, black spruce, highbush cranberry, winter berry, white cedar, tamarack, red osier dogwood, speckled alder, snowberry, bur oak and elderberry.

This was Plaza 69 TD branch manager Stan Macnabb’s third time participating in the effort.

“I enjoy it,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity to get out and meet some people.”

The day’s efforts kicked off with a land acknowledgement and cultural songs reflective of the natural landscape.

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Singers Linda Lees, Judy Morrissey and Sophia Dewar sing a couple of songs before Saturday’s tree planting. Tyler Clarke / Sudbury.com

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Junction Creek Stewardship Committee intern Charly Leclair instructions a group of volunteers on how to plan trees in Garson on Saturday. Tyler Clarke / Sudbury.com