As part of our 50th anniversary celebrations the NPCA launched the Simply Tree-mendous Challenge at April 30, 2009.   The goal of the ‘challenge’ is to have residents, groups, service clubs and businesses plant 50,000 native trees/shrubs across the watershed over a 2 year period. 

The ‘Simply Tree-mendous Challenge’ is a friendly competition between our watershed municipalities, with the focus on incorporating native species especially in urban environments. The program officially begins as of May 1, 2009 and will continue until April 30, 2011. The Conservation Authority will promote the competition and provide updates. 

The goal of the challenge is simple:

• Encourage / promote / educate about the use of Native plants in our watershed

• Build native tree / shrub planting capacity – have more native trees / shrubs planted across our watershed than normally happens in a given year through the various planting agencies / groups (this includes NPCA, Niagara Restoration Council, Land Care Niagara, Ontario Power Generation – these are the major tree planting players in our watershed).
   
• Share the cost – have the plants paid for by municipalities, individuals landowners, other groups and agencies as not represented in the above bullet.

• Increase  awareness of the NPCA, our staff and programs

From a tracking and scoring perspective, every native tree and shrub that is planted is awarded 1 point.     

The program criteria are as follows:

Any tree / shrub planted which meets the first 3 bullets outlined above counts – (this means as long as it is not part of an existing initiative such as a project outlined in bullet 2 above, and is being paid for by someone other than the agencies as listed in bullet 2 receives a point. 

Tree / shrubs can be planted anywhere in our watershed, urban, rural, riparian, woodlot, etc, does not matter.  Participants are asked to record the number and type of native plants they plant either on their own lands, or other properties within their municipality.

We have secured municipal support through council presentations, asking them to lead by example and incorporate native trees and shrubs into their operational plantings and development standards.

A scoring system has been set up on the website, scoring will be tracked by municipality and a running total will be kept.  At the end of the challenge a special award will be given to the municipality who has scored the highest points.

This challenge is being recorded on the honour system, but we will conduct periodic checks to verify the plantings.

Municipalities are asked to encourage/challenge their residents to get involved.  To start the Challenge, the Conservation Authority is providing each municipality with the first 50 native trees and information including our “Guide to Celebrate Niagara Peninsula’s Native Plants”, and list of current suppliers to everyone interested in participating in the ‘challenge’. 

Municipalities may make arrangements for your first 50 trees by contacting:

Mrs. Jocelyn Baker
Watershed Restoration Coordinator
905-788-3135 ext. 243; Email: jbaker@npca.ca

Key Documents

Click here to Download Simply Tree-mendous Plant/Tree List

To view Niagara Native Shrubs and Trees

For a list of Niagara Native Tree/Shrub local suppliers, click here

To download a full list of Niagara Native Shrubs and Trees, click here

To download a map of municipalities included in the Challenge, click here

To download a map of NPCA City of Hamilton boundaries for challenge eligiblity, click here

To download a map of NPCA Haldimand County boundaries for challenge eligiblity, click here

Please Note:
Partnership projects with the Conservation Authority are not eligible.  Trees and shrubs need to be Niagara native species.