Posted by Carolyn Weatherson on Apr 21, 2021
Watch this SHORT VIDEO about the Rotary Forest at Guelph Lake
 
Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the final Rotary Forest Tree-Planting Event is being postponed until spring 2022.
We look forward to planting again with you when it is safe to do so. 
Thank you all for your years of support and dedication to the environment.


Click Here to Donate to the Rotary Forest Project and Help us Plant Trees 
(Under "Fund" Click on arrow and scroll down until you see 2021 Rotary Forest)
 
For 14 years, the Rotary Club of Guelph, in partnership with the GRCA, have been organizing an Earth Day event to plant trees in the Rotary Forest.
Along with hundreds of environmentally conscious volunteers from the Guelph community, we have almost completed planting 60,000 trees in this magnificent 100-acre forest to clean our air and water.
The Rotary Forest now has a trail running through it for all to enjoy.
We can't get together this year to plant, but we have hired contractors to do a non-linear planting of red pine and red oak this year.
Each year we have planted a variety of indigenous species with special groves, lookout points and sitting areas.
Get out and enjoy it.
A walk in nature is not only good for your physical health, but it's excellent for your mental health as well.
We look forward to our final planting and celebration next year in 2022 with all of you!

Photo of the Rotary Forest by Greg Meridith
 
 
 
 
The Rotary Forest project began in 2007, thanks to the vision of a team of Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Guelph in partnership with a team from the GRCA.  The project's ultimate goal is to increase the canopy cover in the City of Guelph and surrounding area by planting 60,000 trees by 2020 and create an exciting hub for the community.  (Due to Covid-19, completion is postponed to 2022.)
 
Each year,  hundreds of environmentally-minded citizens help us transform a 40-hectare area, across from the Guelph Lake Nature Centre, into a wonderful new resource for our community, with trees that will clean our air, our water, and link nearby forest habitat to create a corridor for wildlife. This vision of a healthy community for generations to come is celebrating its 13th and final year in 2020 (postponed). 

Each year we plant a wide variety of trees with a special grove or area.  One year we planted a white pine grove, another a walnut grove, we created a beautiful wildflower meadow for pollinators, for Canada's 150th anniversary in 2017 we even planted a sugar maple grove in the shape of a giant maple leaf! In 2019, we planted a birch grove. We plant evergreens as well as a variety of deciduous trees each year like oaks, maples, and hickories as well as shrub species like chokeberry, ninebark and serviceberry which increase diversity and provide additional food sources for birds and wildlife.

Each tree can sequester 1 ton of carbon dioxide by the time it reaches 40 years old.  The Rotary Forest's 60,000 trees over their lifespan will be equivalent to taking 201,120 cars off the road.

This incredible project has been recognized by Rotary International as an exceptional community project.  We were honoured to have Elizabeth May, Mike Schreiner and David Suzuki join us in 2018 to plant special disease-resistant elm trees grown by the University of Guelph.