An initiative to honour Canada's fallen heroes and support the environment has rooted its way through Chatham-Kent, planting more than 40,000 trees.
The Highway of Heroes Tree Campaign pays tribute to veterans by planting a tree for each Canadian that has served in the Canadian Armed Forces.
The group initially wanted to plant 117,000 trees along the Highway of Heroes from Trenton to Toronto, a 170-kilometre stretch of Highway 401, honouring Canadian soldiers killed in the war. They have since taken off with the aim of planting two million trees off and along Highway 401.
"Once we began to connect with veterans, their families, and the military community, it didn't take very long for us to come to the realization that we could expand our mission," said the campaign's executive director, Mike Hurley. "We increased our goal to include 1.8 million trees off the highway in honour of everyone who has ever served."
Hurley said the group was in Chatham-Kent last year and came back to plant more.
"Our partnership with Forests Ontario and the 50 Million Tree Program has allowed us to take immense strides toward reaching our goal of supporting the planting of two million trees in total," said Hurley. "In just two years, we have gone from having less than ten per cent of our goal planted to over 75 per cent."
Anyone living within 30-kilometers of the Highway 401 corridor from Windsor to Cornwall and is interested in planting trees next year can visit www.forestsontario.ca
