Sowing The Future

The Tree Planting Car brought nature education to four generations.

- Dianne J. Beaven

Some of my earliest and fondest childhood memories go back to the times when I would accompany my dad, Alan Beaven, to search for the Tree Planting Car (TPC) located somewhere among the hundreds of railcars at the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) yards in Winnipeg. It always felt like an adventure. Dad was the longest-serving lecturer on the TPC, beginning his career in 1926 and ending in 1946. By the time I came on the scene, he had completed his stint on the car but was still responsible for its operation.

The saga of the TPC began in 1919 when the Canadian Forestry Association, in cooperation with the CPR and Canadian National Railway (CNR), launched one of the most innovative and longest-surviving education programs to be undertaken on the Canadian Prairies. From 1919 to 1973, the TPC travelled 263,000 miles and played host to four generations, numbering more than 1.5 million people across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. During those years, about half a billion trees were planted on approximately 100,000 farms.