Vernon environmental group giving away 1,500 trees

If you're looking to spruce up your yard, and at the same time do your bit to fight climate change, a Vernon environmental organization can help with 1,500 trees to give away for free Saturday, April 10.

In celebration of Earth Day on April 22 and Earth Week, April 18 to April 25, Vernon's Sustainable Environmental Network Society is giving away six varieties of trees.

"It's a very effective way of reducing climate change," Sustainable Environmental Network Society member John Barling told iNFOnews.ca.

Barling said the tree give-a-way will take place at the parking lot of Nature's Fair on 30 Avenue in Vernon and six species will be available – fir, larch, lodgepole pine, white pine, ponderosa pine and spruce.

Prospective gardeners will need to bring a bag or a box to put their tree seedlings in, and a basic information sheet will be provided on how to plant it at home.

The trees have been donated by the B.C. Forestry Research Station and while Barling has yet to see them, he said they are seedlings and won't be very big.

Barling said research shows that forest restoration is the best approach for individuals to reduce the threat of global warming.

"At the moment 85 per cent of the world's old growth forest have already been cut down and an area of forest equivalent to the size of Belgium is clear cut every year around the world," he said.

However, research shows there is adequate land around the world to increase forested areas by a third, and major reforestation at that sort of scale could erase approximately 100 years of carbon emissions.

Sustainable Environmental Network Society tree give-a-way takes place at Nature’s Fare, 3400 30 Ave., Vernon, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. or as long as they still have trees left. Remember to bring a bag or a box to put the tree in.

For more information go here.

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