The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago. Or 20. That’s what I was told by the two retired foresters who put 2,000 one-year-old seedlings in the ground on my farm back in 2017. I had signed on with what was then called the 50 Million Tree program run by Forests Ontario, which subsidized plantings for private landowners. …the Forests Ontario program made tree planting easy. At 40 cents a stem, those trees cost me $800. While 2,000 trees seems like a lot, they cover just under one hectare. We got the seedlings in the ground a couple years before Doug Ford nixed the initiative in 2019. But then, Justin Trudeau created the 2 Billion Trees program, pledging $3.2 billion over 10 years. That was an ambitious target, and Canada has fallen short in part because it takes time to ramp up infrastructure, collect seeds, set up nurseries, prepare sites and get expertise on the ground. This is why a long-term commitment and consistent funding is imperative. [May require a subscription to the Toronto Star for full access]