The federal Liberal’s 2019 election pledge to plant two billion trees in 10 years has barely sprouted. A recent audit found the program has missed its targets to date, with less than 3 per cent of the promised total in the ground, and far too many are ending up in single-species tree farms, rather than future forests. …The federal plan hinges mostly on cost-shared partnerships, and that has proved to be a vulnerability. To achieve its goals, Ottawa needs co-operation from provinces, territories, local governments, Indigenous communities, plus farmers and other private landowners. The key partnerships are with the provinces, and those have been slow to blossom. B.C. and Alberta have recently signed on. Ontario and Quebec are among the holdouts, a major risk to the program’s success. …Since nature can be capricious, the audit called for more consistent monitoring to be sure that seedlings are thriving after planting. [This story is only available to Globe and Mail subscribers]