FAQs

Trees for All is an NPCA-led initiative designed to increase tree planting efforts across the Niagara Peninsula watershed. Through partnerships with local landowners, municipalities, businesses, and volunteers, Trees for All aims to:

• Plant native trees to expand forest cover, restore habitats, improve water quality, and support climate resilience.
• Leverage NPCA’s expertise in ecological restoration to ensure planting initiatives are science-based, strategic, and impactful.
• Expand large-scale tree planting efforts by working with partners like Forests Ontario and Tree Canada to increase resources, improving efficiency, and engaging local communities.
• Strengthen partnerships and outreach with municipalities, landowners, businesses, and volunteers to drive long-term program success.
• Maximize federal funding impact by enhancing operational capacity, fostering strategic collaborations, and scaling up restoration efforts.

The initiative contributes to Canada’s 2 Billion Trees program.

The federal funding will be dedicated to planting 80,000 potted trees on public lands in partnership with municipalities and other stakeholders over the next four years. 

Additionally, NPCA will lead the development of a Native Seed Collection Community of Practice for the Niagara Peninsula watershed, supported by $300,000 from Natural Resources Canada. This initiative, delivered by the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, will help secure a supply of native, genetically diverse, and regionally adapted tree species to support future restoration and reforestation projects.

At present, all properties that were registered for the ‘Trees for All’ program have had a preliminary assessment via desktop analysis.

• Many of the properties where 500 or more trees can be planted have been prioritized for spring 2024, and these landowners are currently being contacted to schedule site visits.
• We endeavor to contact those currently projected for planting in 2025 and beyond as soon as plans for 2024 are solidified.

All reforestation type projects (i.e. enhancing existing woodlots) remain unscheduled at this time as these require more time to assess planting needs with help from a registered forester. 

We are still in the process of following-up with all landowners and expect to get back to everyone by the end of 2023 with information on next steps. We appreciate your patience as we continue to follow-up with all registrants.

Our goal is to make this program as cost-effective for landowners as possible.

Depending on the outcome of our funding application to the Federal 2 Billion Trees Program, ‘Trees for All’ will offer a cost-sharing model to provide subsidized trees at reasonable costs to all participants.

Our program will cover 75% of project costs and landowners will be expected to contribute the remaining 25%.

The trees that will be offered through 'Trees For All' will be native species only. The exact species and size of the trees will depend on what is appropriate for the existing site conditions. 

Most projects will be prescribed with bareroot trees and shrubs. Landowner preference will be taken into consideration, however the species and size of the trees planted will be subject to final approval from the registered forester, keeping ecological co-benefits as the number one priority in mind.

If you registered after the April 7 deadline and have called and/or emailed with us, you have been successfully added to the inventory list.

If you would like to confirm that your property has been registered, please email Emily at esimmons@npca.ca.

Note: as we proceed with tree plantings into 2024, we may launch a second call for private landowner applications to help us reach the goal of 1 million trees in the Niagara Peninsula watershed by 2031.

Currently, we are not accepting new expressions of interest. However, if we are a successful recipient of the Federal 2 Billion Trees funding, we may launch a second call-out for applications! 

Please use the 'sign up' widget on the home page to ensure you receive notifications and the latest 'Trees For All' news.

Some large-scale projects may be eligible for the Managed Forest Tax Incentive Program.

Whether you qualify for the Managed Forest Tax Incentive depends on the total number of trees you have on your property, and at what density. You will have to work with a Managed Forest Plan Approver to start this process.

For more information, please visit: https://www.ontario.ca/page/managed-forest-tax-incentive-program.

Yes, infill projects would be eligible for participation in this program. However, these projects require a more thorough assessment under the direction of a registered forester and will only be considered for planting beginning in 2025.

There is no minimum property size or number of trees to be eligible to participate in the ‘Trees for All’ program.

Properties that can plant 500 or more trees will be prioritized, with implementation beginning in 2024. Most of these landowners have already been contacted. We also endeavor to contact those currently projected for planting in 2025 and beyond as soon as plans for 2024 are solidified.

We appreciate everyone's patience as we continue to contact all registrants.

‘Trees for All’ will be planting native trees only, appreciating that the Niagara Peninsula watershed is in the highly biodiverse Carolinian Zone.

To be included in this program, the species of fruit tree must be one that naturally occurs within this area and available through suppliers. 

Unfortunately, we do not offer services to remove invasive species. There are resources available to provide guidance on how to effectively manage invasive species on your property that can be found on the Invasive Species Centre’s resource page linked below.

https://www.invasivespeciescentre.ca/invasive-species/invasive-species-resources/

Most tree planting services are included in this program. However, depending on the nature and scope of the planting opportunity, there may be some flexibility for landowners to plant some trees on their own.

Should landowners choose to plant trees themselves, these opportunities must still follow processes and monitoring requirements stipulated by funding agreements. This will require ongoing engagement with the Niagara Peninsula Tree Planting Partnership and NPCA's restoration team.

The NPCA will monitor all planting projects up to 10 years after implementation when afforestation plantings are considered new woodlots or young forests by forestry standards.

Tree planting projects require monitoring at years 2, 5, and 10 following project completion.

All minimum monitoring requirements will be conducted by qualified forestry and ecological restoration professionals and involve qualitative and quantitative measurements. If the survival rate appears to be below the minimum threshold, a re-evaluation will be completed to assess refill planting needs under the direction of a registered forester.

The majority of planting opportunities will be completed in the spring of each year for the duration of the 'Trees For All' program.

We may consider fall plantings, however space will be limited as much of the monitoring, seed collection, and site preparation is prioritized during this time of the year.

Yes, however you may be required to pick up trees at a prescheduled time and be responsible for planting them.