County tree giveaway

Dozens of residents collect hundreds of saplings during annual Spring event

On a cold day that felt closer to winter, dozens of people in tuques and scarves waited patiently to collect their personal signs of Spring.

Half an hour before the County’s annual tree giveaway began in the windswept parking lot of Wellington’s Lehigh Arena on Saturday, several people were already waiting when County worker Kaitlyn Rose drove up with 700 tiny saplings in the back of a half-ton truck.

“I’ve never done this before,” she said, “so it’ll take me a minute to get organized.”

When she said she needed water for the twig-like saplings, volunteers quickly grabbed the plastic pails and dashed into the arena to fill them. Soon after, a line had formed and residents were choosing their allotments of up to 10 trees each from a selection that included sycamore, bur oak, sugar maple, black cherry and serviceberry. Quinte Conservation supplied the 700 saplings for Wellington and also provided them for tree giveaways in Picton and Ameliasburgh that marked Earth Day.

Connie Lebrun picked up a couple of tulip trees and white birch, all fast growers. “I want to live to see them grow tall,” she joked, adding that she only selected a few saplings for her Huyck’s Point Road property to give her husband Pierre a break because “he has to dig the holes.”

When Wellington village resident Helen Morris chose four white cedars, two tamaracks and a white spruce, she pulled out her phone. “I have to take pictures or I’ll never remember what they are,” she said.

It took less than an hour for several of the more popular sapling buckets to empty. All the while, Kaitlyn was handing out care instructions for the trees. She also pointed out that it would be years before these tiny saplings would bear fruit or flower, in the cases of the black cherry and tulip trees.

The County distributed a total of 2,000 saplings at the three locations, including all 700 in Wellington.