The Village of Canton (pop. ~6500, in St. Lawrence County) has been a Tree City USA for nine years. Through the efforts of the Canton Tree Committee, the Village was awarded a $1000 Tree City USA Reward Grant for fall planting in 2021. Funding also came from a $5000 reimbursement program from SLELO PRISM’s Urban Forest Sustainability Initiative.

The event was held on Saturday morning, November 6th, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. at Canton’s Bend in the River Park and billed thusly by the Canton Tree Committee: “This event will give you and your family a chance to be a part of our community history, learn how to properly plant a tree, have some apple cider, and have the opportunity to watch first-hand how these trees grow year after year.”

Students from Canton Central High School Earth Science class

In addition to the Saturday morning public planting attended by 25 adults and 10 children, 32 students of varying ages helped to plant trees over the course of three days: a St. Lawrence-Lewis (SLL) BOCES Agriculture Studies Academy class of 11 students, a Canton Central High School Earth Science class group of 7, sustainability students (10) from a Cornell Cooperative Extension class, and four students from St. Lawrence University Environmental Studies.

Professional instructors from SLL BOCES and from the St. Lawrence County Soil and Water Conservation District provided demonstrations of proper tree planting after the Canton DPW workers broke ground for the trees. All trees are planted, staked, caged, watered, and mulched, and DPW will continue watering for the remainder of this season and next spring.

Planting demo

The group used containerized plant material and planted one river birch, two red oak, and four maple cultivars: one each of ‘Brandywine’, ‘Bowhall’, ‘Autumn Blaze’, and ‘Red Sunset.’

Perhaps the most enthusiastic tree planter at the Canton event. 💚

Thank you to Herbert Bullock of the Canton Tree Committee for supplying materials for this post.