Home Hardware volunteers Vangie Meier, left, William Rodrigue and Braelen Bacon take part in a tree planting event at the Meadow Lake Co-op Centre on Sept. 24, 2025. The event was part of National Forest Week. (Kenneth Cheung/meadowlakeNOW staff)

By Kenneth Cheung

A GREENER COMMUNITY

Over 80 trees planted at Meadow Lake Co-op Centre for National Forest Week

Sep 25, 2025 | 11:39 AM

Meadow Lake’s new Co-op Centre is looking a little greener after volunteers planted about 82 trees Wednesday to mark National Tree Day.

The local project was part of a nationwide initiative led by Home Hardware and Tree Canada, which saw 25 planting events across the country this week during National Forest Week, running Sept. 21 to 28.

Connie Marsh-Yuhasz, marketing manager at Home Hardware in Meadow Lake, helped organize the effort after applying for a grant through the company’s national program.

“Hopefully our trees will survive and thrive for years to come,” she said.

A little baby joins volunteers during a tree planting event at the Meadow Lake Co-op Centre on Sept. 24, 2025. (Kenneth Cheung/meadowlakeNOW staff)

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Staff from the city, along with high school students and Home Hardware employees, joined in on the planting, which was valued at about $3,500. Labour was donated and the trees were sold at wholesale prices to stretch the budget.

Those trees include native aspens, birch, spruce, and ornamental grasses, as well as apple and prairie cherry trees developed at the University of Saskatchewan.

Robin Adair, a forestry specialist with Tree Canada, said the choices were made to provide shade and fruit.

“What a lot of people don’t think of is having a tree on the south side of a building with leaves, a deciduous tree, so that it lets the heat in in the winter, but in the summer, it cools the building,” he said.

However, those benefits will unfold over time.

“The shade trees will take probably five to 10 years for them to establish. The fruit trees might take three to four before they start really producing fruit and growing,” Adair said.

“You don’t plant a tree for yourself. You plant it for your kids and grandkids. You plant it down the road.”

(Kenneth Cheung/meadowlakwNOW staff)

(Kenneth Cheung/meadowlakeNOW staff)

He added the mix also supports pollinators and gives residents something to enjoy year-round.

“We’ve got some fruit trees, so people can kind of wander through after they come from a hockey game in the fall, they can go out and pick some [apples and cherries],” he said.

Mayor Merlin Seymour welcomed the contribution.

“I want to give a big hats off and a thank you to Home Hardware Building Center … they chose to put it at the new Co Op center. So I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished product,” he said.

A day earlier, volunteers in St. Walburg planted 130 trees at the local health complex as part of the same initiative. Home Hardware’s partnership with Tree Canada dates back to 1992. The retailer says more than 30,000 trees have been planted nationwide since then.

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Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com