(Barrie, ON) – Last year’s ice storm caused significant damage in the City of Barrie, resulting in the loss of more than 5,000 street and park trees, and damaging approximately 46,000 municipal trees. The City took immediate action to undertake clean up after the ice storm and is working quickly to replant trees that were lost.
“When last year’s ice storm damaged thousands of trees across Barrie, we made a commitment to restore what was lost,” said Mayor Alex Nuttall. “Today, that work is well underway. With a $2.1 million investment, we’re replanting trees in our parks, neighbourhoods, and natural spaces, with approximately 1,400 already in the ground and thousands more to come. I want to thank City staff, our contractors, and community partners like Living Green Barrie for helping us move this work forward. Together, we're restoring Barrie’s tree canopy and ensuring future generations can continue to enjoy the beautiful green spaces that make our city such a great place to live.”
In June 2025, Barrie City Council approved a replacement planting program to support rapid replanting and care of trees lost in the storm to help restore Barrie’s long-term urban canopy. The program includes assessing optimal planting locations and species, removing and grinding stumps, replanting trees, and ongoing watering and maintenance to ensure the future health of the new trees. Ongoing monitoring is also taking place for long-term care of trees damaged by the ice storm, including pruning, watering, and fertilizing.
City staff and contractors have worked this spring to replant trees in parks, natural areas, and street boulevards, and work will continue in the next three weeks. After that time, planting will continue in the fall and then in spring 2027 to reach the 5,000 tree replacement goal.
For more information on ice storm recovery status, including tree replanting locations, species, and timing, visit barrie.ca/IceStorm.
Caption: Mayor Alex Nuttall and Deputy Mayor Robert Thomson plant a tree in Leacock Park, one of the thousands of trees being replanted to replace those lost in the 2025 ice storm.