“Extremely successful,” said Councillor Ian Walker, who sits on the Alfred-Plantagenet Township environmental committee. “It was a good, steady lineup and everybody waited patiently.”

The May 6 event is the fifth year for the annual tree-and-seedling giveaway offered every spring to resident through a partnership between the township and the South Nation Conservation Authority (SNC). The conservation authority provides young tree saplings and seedlings ready for planting and local municipalities, who take part in the program, provide a pickup site and handle the advance registration for the tree and seedling orders.

This year’s event in Plantagenet saw 300 ready-to-plant apple tree saplings handed out to residents for their spring gardening projects, along with about 2000 seedlings of white pine, spruce, maple, oak, sycamore, birch, and also nana berry shrubs.

“There are more and more people concerned about the environment,” said Walker, concerning the growing popularity of the annual tree-and-seedling giveaway.

He noted that the apple tree saplings are a perennial favourite with homeowners.

“They’re glamourous,” he said. “Everybody wants to have an apple tree.”