Tree Days helps promote healthy people, healthy environment

NEWS RELEASE

SAULT STE. MARIE REGION
CONSERVATION AUTHORITY

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TD Tree Days helps promote healthy people, healthy environment

Sault Ste. Marie Region Conservation Authority partners for the 6th annual TD Tree Day in Sault Ste. Marie

SAULT STE. MARIE - The TD Friends of the Environment, in partnership with the Sault Ste. Marie Region Conservation Authority (SSMRCA) will be celebrating TD Tree Day in Sault Ste. Marie by planting 160 trees on Saturday, September 12, 2014 from 9 am. to 1 p.m.

TD Tree Day provides TD employees, families, friends and community members with the opportunity to demonstrate environmental stewardship in their local community.

Healthy forests and urban green spaces are good for the environment and provide positive effects on our mental and physical health.

By participating in TD Tree Days, volunteers actively support forest stewardship, while at the same time make a real contribution to their own well-being and support local community health.

In addition to the positive effects on our physical and mental health, the aesthetic, cultural, recreational and ecological values of forests provide vital functions including:

    •    Erosion prevention
    •    Production of oxygen and filtering of air pollutants Moderate climate
    •    Provide essential habitat to birds and other wildlife Provide shade and wind reduction
    •    Mitigate the effects of global warming
    •    Increase forest biodiversity

“The TD Tree Day planting taking place on Landslide Hill is an important community event, and a perfect connection for both organizations,” said Deane Greenwood, SSMRCA trail coordinator and community liaison. ”It’s part of a continuing effort by the SSMRCA to combat extensive erosion on Landslide Hill. The tree plant will include native species such as White Cedar, Red Oak, White Birch and White Pine.”

Parking for this event is available on the west side of Bible Fellowship, 756 Landslide Road.

Everyone is welcome to lend a hand and plant a tree.

Volunteers should wear sturdy work boots or closed toe shoes, and bring work gloves and a water bottle as well as a shovel and pail for carrying water and mulch.

Training and guidance will be provided on site.

TD Tree Day

TD Tree Days was launched by TD Friends of the Environment Foundation in 2010 as a national employee engagement program.

This annual event invests in the health of local ecology, and offers people a fun, easy and rewarding way to give back and help green the communities in which they live and work.

Volunteers from Scouts to Bankers have planted over 135,000 trees through TD Tree Days.

This year volunteers will plant another 50,000 trees in over 140 communities across Canada in celebration of the program’s 6th anniversary.

About Sault Ste. Marie Region Conservation Authority

The Sault Ste. Marie Region Conservation Authority (SSMRCA) is one of 36 Conservation Authorities in Ontario which are a network of organizations involved in integrated watershed management.

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