From farm to forest

In 2005, a federal program aimed to transform underused farmland into forests. Here's how some of those trees have fared

- PETER KUITENBROUWER

IN THE 2019 FEDERAL ELECTION campaign, Justin Trudeau vowed to plant two billion trees across Canada over 10 years to combat climate change. Given the forest blooming on Dolf and Anne Wynia’s doorstep in Norfolk County, Ont., this vow didn’t seem too unrealistic. In 2005, the couple took part in a federal government program called Forest 2020, which saw trees planted on close to 6,000 hectares of underused farm fields across Canada in an experiment to measure the forests’ effectiveness at capturing carbon. The program required landowners to protect the trees for 15 years, hence the name. So how have those trees fared?

The Wynias leapt at the chance to convert their 12-hectare farm to forest. They were renting their land to a tobacco farmer, at a time when tobacco fields dominated the north shore of Lake Erie. But Anne felt like a hypocrite: she sat on the local smokefree places action committee.