• We are a charitable foundation called the Maple Leaves Forever Foundation (MLF), Registration No. 875341927, that advocates and supports the planting of native Canadian maples in increasing numbers across the rural and urban landscape of southern Ontario.
• We own a woodlot in the Township of Mulmur in Dufferin County north of Orangeville.

• We are committed to providing saplings and larger maple trees to planting agencies and landowners on a cost shared basis. We do this by working with seed collectors and private tree nurseries so that a certified supply of seed zone identified native sugar, red and silver maple seedlings are available to be grown into saplings and trees.
  
  
• We are committed to form partnerships with local, regional and provincial tree planting groups in southern Ontario. Examples of these groups are the Ontario Stewardship Network, Conservation Authorities, municipalities, cities, towns, community associations, volunteer groups and individual landowners.
  
  
• We are committed to increasing the levels of maple trees planted. This means building relationships with an increasing number of nurseries to increase the supply of native seedlings and larger stock each year. It means building relationships with agencies and landowners who can harness communities to plant more trees.
  
  To date, we have worked with the following nurseries:
  
  - Baker Forestry Services in Erin
  - Connaught Nursery near Pembroke
  - Emanuel M. Martin Nursery near Elmira
  - Ferguson Forest Centre in Kemptville
  - Golden Bough Nursery in Marlbank (north of Kingston)
  - Pineneedle Farms in Pontypool
  - Sloan’s Nurseries in Bothwell (between London and Chatham)
  - Somerville in Alliston
  - Uxbridge Nurseries, Brooklin
  - St. Williams Nursery and Ecology Centre in St. Williams
  - Van Den Nest in Eden (south of Tillsonburg)
  - Winkelmolen in Lynden (west of Ancaster)
  
  
  
• • In 2010, we provided Sheridan and Uxbridge Nurseries with some seed zone specific bare root seedlings. These two nurseries are now growing them on successfully into larger containerized saplings to provide the public with an opportunity to buy genuine seed zone native maples.   
  We provided Sheridan and Uxbridge Nurseries with some seed zone specific bare root seedlings this spring. They are now growing them on into larger containerized saplings to provide the public with an opportunity to buy truly seed zone identified native maples.
  
  We would be pleased to hear from any nursery that is in the business of supplying native maples or would like to join forces with us to enable the public to obtain genuine seed zone specific maples. Your nursery need not be in Ontario, it could be in any province across Canada.
  
  
• • We promote and foster the Maple Leaves Forever (MLF) maple which is a vigourous sapling or larger tree that comes from a certified local Canadian seed source. Please refer to the description of an MLF maple on the Home page. The tree has then been grown to high standards. The planting agencies and the public can be assured that an MLF maple is native, healthy and will be suited to the planting site.
  
  
• • We will endeavour, in consultation with the planting agency involved, to provide cultural advice so that planting survival rates are acceptable and that some degree of success monitoring activities are a part of the local arrangements.

• Maples are disappearing from the landscape of rural southern Ontario. In the late 19th century, farmers planted roadsides and hedgerows with maples from their woodlots in return for a government incentive. This gave rise to a legacy of lines of maples and other hardwoods bordering roads and dividing farm fields. These trees are now dying and are not being replaced.

• To re-introduce and further restore maples as a visual feature on the rural landscapes by planting on roadsides, laneways and along hedgerows and property lines in southern Ontario.

• We are primarily self-funded. The MLF Foundation however welcomes support and sponsorship from the public, the private sector, other foundations and corporations.

• The Foundation is governed by a Board of Directors.
• MLF’s woodlot in Mulmur is managed by Ken Jewett and Mike Fisher.

MLF Affiliations:

• Member of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association
• Member of the Ontario Forestry Association
• Member of the Ontario Woodlot Association
• Member of the Forest Gene Conservation Association

• The MLF woodlot is in Mulmur Township which is northeast of Orangeville in the County of Dufferin. The site has a well established hardwood stand on it with a substantial sugar maple component. It has open fields which may be used for nursery stock out-planting and a year-round stream runs through the property. The out-planting could involve the future growing of native maples from certified seed and the production of very limited amounts of taller saplings and potted stock.
  In the future, an educational program may be created in the building on the property to provide a hands-on demonstration of growing maples and their associated care and tending practices.
  
  We are delighted to report that a Management Plan for the period 2008-2018 is in place and that MLF’s woodlot is now Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified through the SmartWood program (Certificate No. SW-FM/COC-002851) and we are now part of the Southern Ontario Certified Forests Group.
  
  This means that our woodlot is FSC certified as well-managed to international standards through SmartWood, a program of the Rainforest Alliance. SmartWood is an independent auditor for the FSC. The Southern Ontario Certified Forests Group is a group of small properties Certified through a Resource Manager Certificate held by Williams & Associates Forestry Consultants Ltd. Links to websites of the Certification bodies are provided.
  
  The FSC sets accepted international standards of responsible management for both tropical and temperate forests. The management of our woodlot conforms to a set of criteria which establishes it as a managed forest in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence forest region of Ontario and Canada. Any products from our woodlot can now be green-labelled and also can bear the FSC logo certifying that they come from a well-managed forest.
  
  Private land woodlot certification remains quite rare in Ontario and we are an important part of this initial surge to place private lands under these standards. Peter Williams R.P.F of Williams and Associates, Forestry and Environmental Consultants of Rockwood, Ontario undertook the task of conducting the process to certify the woodlot and developed a Management Plan that will implement the standards. They offer this service to both private and public forest landowners.
  

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• Native Maple Seed Collection
  In the fall of 2006, Sugar maple seeds were collected and planted from three Ontario seed sources by Somerville Nurseries in Alliston. These seedlings were available for planting in 2009. In addition, sugar and red maples, also from known seed sources, are being grown at Richardson Farms in Pontypool. Some of these seedlings were available in the spring of 2008 and continue to be available. This was the start in the development of a pure Canadian "MLF Maple". We continue to collect certified seed when it is available.
  
  
• Tree Planting initiatives:
  During the fall of 2003, MLF made its first offering of free sugar bare root maple seedlings to the taxpayers of Mulmur Township. We expanded this offering to include Mono Township in 2004, 2005, 2006 and again in 2007. In 2006, we were a major sponsor of the Ontario Envirothon at which 26 Ontario schools participated in an environmental competition at the Science North centre in Sudbury. MLF provided hundreds of bare root maples which the students planted along the cross-Canada walking trail.  
  
  In 2007, MLF started giving older 5 foot maple saplings to schools, conservation groups, for example the Huronia Woodland Association, and to municipalities. On September 26, 2007, we joined Tree Canada in donating and planting 50 large red maples at Wasaga Beach as part of the Canada Green Streets program. This was the second occasion that MLF has been involved in Canada’s Maple Leaf Day celebrations. We held our own Maple Leaf Day events in 2008 in Rouge Park and in Collingwood in 2009. In September 2011, Founder Ken Jewett participated in a tree planting ceremony with Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty to celebrate the 1st occasion of the National Tree Day. 
  
  
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What we will do

• Since 2008, MLF has worked with Ontario Stewardship co-ordinators in southern Ontario, proponents in Conservation Authorities, towns, municipalities, associations, volunteer groups and and a large number of individual landowners to increase tree planting numbers and tree survival by building and expanding our on-going relationships with them.  
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