Cathedral neighbourhood volunteers plant hundreds of trees to grow urban forest

Residents in the Cathedral neighbourhood did their part in helping create an urban forest in the Queen City. Wayne Mantyka reports.

Several hundred trees were planted this weekend in the Cathedral neighbourhood as part of a multi-year project to create an urban forest.

Regina’s Les Sherman Park hosted a flurry of green thumb activity over the weekend. The goal is to plant one tree for every resident in Regina’s cathedral neighbourhood. That’s 7,311.

“Shrubs and small trees and big trees and create more habitat, create more area to gather snow for cross country skiing and create sort of unstructured spaces for play and bird watching,” explained Chris Sale, an organizer for the cathedral village forest project.

The urban forest project began in 2024 with more trees added each year in a designated area of Les Sherman Park. It’s all being done by volunteers with support from the community.

“Because I like trees. I’ve cut down a lot of trees in my career and it makes me feel good to plant them again,” arborist Matt Kaip of Green Drop Tree Care told CTV News.

Many of the seedlings were donated from SaskPower’s Shand Greenhouse.

The forest will cover 1.7 hectares along the shore of Wascana Creek. Volunteers says it also builds community.

“I’ve met so many of my neighbours and like a lot of the kids in the neighbourhood, hundreds of them, came out for the student planting day,” said volunteer Christine Bachinsky.

Regina residents have long loved planting trees.

More than a half million have been planted since the 1800s as efforts continue to transform a prairie landscape into an urban forest.