Hydro One And The City of Peterborough Plant 500 Trees In Ashburnham Memorial Park To Restore Urban Canopy From Last May's Derecho

During Canadian Environment Week, Hydro One and the City of Peterborough helped plant 500 trees at Ashburnham Memorial Park on the heels of the one-year anniversary of the derecho on Wednesday morning.

Jenn McCallum, co-founder of the Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group, her dog Blitz and her group of volunteers helping Hydro One and The City of Peterborough plant 500 trees in Ashburnham Memorial Park to help restore the city’s urban canopy after last year’s derecho. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

Several volunteers from the Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group were on site also lending a hand. Councillors Joy Lachica, Gary Baldwin and Kieth Riel were also in attendance for the event.

Students were originally invited to aid in the tree planting but the air quality conditions were deemed unsafe for the kids to participate.

Hydro One had worked around the clock in order to restore power and help offset any damage caused by the storm. It inspired the company to do something positive for the community according to Teri French, Hydro One executive vice president.

“After the May long-weekend storm last year, I saw first-hand the devastation to the community of Peterborough,” she said. “Responding to this initiative, this tree planting provides such a great benefit for the community and the environment.”

The trees came from Hydro One’s community investment team which was able to supply the funding.

French says this tree planting is more important than ever now than ever before considering the benefits they give and seeing the latest weather conditions in Peterborough and beyond.

“Climate change especially over the last couple days, I think we've realized the importance that providing an urban canopy provides for communities,” she explained.

The City also ran a tree giveaway on Wednesday afternoon shortly after the event. All 250 trees were given away as the City thanked everyone who came out to pick one up according to a Twitter post.

Engage with us on social media on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok. Write to us at tips@ptbocanada.com. Sign up for PTBOBuzz newsletter here.