As seen in The Wilmot-Tavistock Gazette.

About 40 visitors made it out to a Let’s Tree Wilmot event on Saturday, October 15, where the group planted about 120 trees at Anna Tuerr Park in Mannheim.

Because the site was a former gravel pit, Wilmot Supervisor of Parks and Facilities Cody Eby dug holes with an auger during this event, which helped to speed up the planting process.

“With a shovel, with all the stones and gravel, it would have been difficult,” said Let’s Tree Wilmot member Marlene Knezevich. “In some places, you couldn’t even get the shovel in.”

Some of the holes made by the auger were a bit too large to fit the trees, so some spaces were filled in by volunteers with soil. The group planted, then mulched, from around 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. The Optimist Club of Mannheim helped to support the tree planting. In addition to the park planting, Let’s Tree Wilmot volunteers also planted about 12 tree shrubs right at Bleams Road and Knechtel Court.

“The Mannheim Optimist Club has a pollinator garden, and they wanted some trees put in there, so we put some serviceberries in that area for them as well,” said Knezevich.

During the same event, Kitchener-Conestoga Member of Parliament Tim Louis announced a $163,000 donation to the Wilmot Horticultural Society. Marlene said that Louis had already signed up for the tree planting event before the group knew anything about the announcement.

“We were short of Tree Crew volunteers, who show volunteers how to plant trees and also plant and mulch. We asked him to be one for Saturday and he said yes,” said Marlene. “Last year, Tim had the highest attendance of any volunteer coming out to tree planting events. He is a great planter!”

The next Let’s Tree Wilmot planting will take place at the Wilmot Recreation Complex on October 29 at about 9 a.m.