Maple Leaves Forever

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Tender for Native Maples from the City of Ottawa

In the fall of 2008, MLF visited Ottawa and met with the City and the National Capital Commission to talk about the supply of native seed zone identified maples for planting in urban, rural areas and parks in their jurisdictions.

In January 2009, the City of Ottawa, led by David Barkley the City Forester and Tracey Schwets, issued a tender to the nurseries witch deal with MLF, stipulating that the maple saplings and trees to be supplied for the City’s use in 2009, must be native and seed-zone defined.

This tender was a key step for not only MLF but also for the conservation of native maple genetic values. It heralded that at last a major tree purchaser was insisting on verified native stock.

Most large and small commercial nursery establishments sell native sugar, red and silver maples but they come from unknown seed sources. From our inquiries, the eastern coast of North America, Michigan, Wisconsin and the Carolinas are the major sources of maple seed and seedlings.

We hope that this significant example and signal set by the City of Ottawa will be understood and appreciated and that other nurseries will start to offer these ‘real’ maples to the rising tide of customers who are interested in placing them on their lands.

Barb Boysen of the Forest Gene Conservation Association commented “Thanks for your efforts under the Maples Leaves Forever Banner. It is wonderful to have the funders/consumers like you taking our message on the road to help get it into practice.

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