Our Mission
To enhance Guelph’s environment through tree planting and related projects, education and community leadership.
Our Method
Not just trees, we plant shrubs and herbaceous plants too! We plant hardy, native species found in the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Forest region as well as some species found in the Carolinian Forest region. Guelph is within the transition area between these two types of plant communities. We develop naturalized landscapes that provide environmental benefits and have low maintenance requirements. We plant native wildflower plugs and seeds at many of our sites to increase biodiversity beyond our 40 species woody plant inventory.
In the beginning, as our logo suggests, the early planting sites were primarily on the industrial lands and the planters were employees, high school students or community volunteers. Over time, TREES FOR GUELPH has been planting more and more on school properties and publicly owned open space with people of all ages.
Our Numbers
Founded in 1990, TFG has facilitated the planting of over 150,000 trees and shrubs in the City of Guelph.
During 2020 and 2021, the pandemic reduced our plantings but we DID plant. New for us, we planted in the fall.
During the 2019 spring planting season a record number of volunteers and school children planted 9,500 trees, shrubs and wildflower plugs at 30 planting events at 26 different sites.
In 2018, 21 Guelph schools and several community groups composed of 7,700 volunteers planted more than 7,000 trees on 28 different sites within the city limits.