Newmarket plants more than 500 trees along streets, in parks

Town committed to increasing tree canopy by 35% by 2051

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 21, 2020
Lisa Queen

Newmarket is getting greener thanks to the addition of hundreds of trees.

As part of its efforts to boost the tree canopy and carry out its urban forestry management plan, the town has planted more than 500 trees.

About 200 have been planted along streets in town while more than 300 are in Leslie Valley Park, Red Deer Open Space, Willowick Park, Rene Bray Park and Whipper Billy Watson Park.

“Council is committed to increasing our tree canopy coverage in Newmarket as trees play a vital role in our community and in our fight against climate change,” Mayor John Taylor said in a statement.

“Trees provide stormwater management benefits, remove pollutants from the air and help to decrease energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). It is our goal to protect existing trees and increase the town’s tree canopy coverage in woodlots by 13 per cent by 2035 and increase our overall tree coverage by 35 per cent by 2051 as laid out in our Urban Forestry Management Plan.”

Over the past several years, the town has been forced to cut down many trees due to the invasive species emerald ash borer, a wood-boring beetle that takes over ash trees and causes them to die.

In an effort to replace trees that were removed, the town is now replanting more than a dozen species of trees to help grow Newmarket’s tree canopy.

Trees being planted this season include shademaster locust, linden, freemanii maple, red oak, horse chestnut, English oak, northern catalpa, tulip tree, sugar maple, silver maple, bur oak, London plane tree and ornamental pear.

Many of the species are trees for pollinators.