Residents invited to grow Vancouver’s urban forest with $10 trees

THE Vancouver Park Board is again offering Vancouver residents the opportunity to buy trees online in the next few weeks for pick up during the last weekend of April.

The Park Board is selling 3,000 trees at $10 apiece. Twenty-six varieties of fruit, flowering, shade and conifer trees, many of which are suitable for small yards, can now be purchased online at vancouver.ca/tree-sale up to a maximum of three per household. Most of the trees are in 5 gallon pots and are between 4 ft and 10 ft high. They are not suitable for balconies or inside the home.

“Residents eagerly await this twice annual sale,” said Park Board Chair Michael Wiebe. “We’ve made a lot more fruit trees available this year as they’re always the first to sell – they have the added benefit of providing fresh fruit in your own backyard. Vancouverites can play a vital role as planting partners to help us restore our tree canopy and meet our goals for a healthy urban forest.”

People who have ordered and paid for their trees online can pick them up at Hillcrest Centre on April 29 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and April 30 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. A limited number of trees will be available for cash purchase on Sunday, April 30 between 2 and 4 p.m.

Trees are only available for sale to Vancouver residents. ID and proof of address will be required when picking up trees.

The trees planted support the Park Board’s Urban Forest and Biodiversity Strategies.

Vancouver’s urban forest includes all trees in parks, streets and yards. It is vital for cleaning air, managing rain water, providing wildlife and bird habitat and improving health and well-being.

The Park Board, residents and other partners aim to plant 17,500 trees this year toward the goal of 150,000 new trees by 2020. Over half the trees have been planted to meet this ambitious goal.

The city’s canopy has been in steady decline over the past two decades. Today, about 18 percent of Vancouver is covered by tree canopy, a drop from 22 percent in 1995. Canopy is the amount of ground covered by tree leaves as seen from the air.