This northern Ontario man guesses he's given away 500K trees in his lifetime

Flowers and chocolates are popular Mother's Day gifts, but for Wayne Reid, of Mattawa, Ont., trees are the preferred option.

This Mother's Day, Reid plans to give away 20,000 tree saplings to moms and their families.

And this is far from the first time he's done this. Since the 1980s he guesses he's given away at least 500,000 trees to anyone who will have them.

The 67-year-old says it's always a thrill when he gets to teach children about trees.

"I just keep talking to them like that and keep telling them how important it is to get a tree in the ground," he said.

"What it means to us and how it helps us breathe, how it helps keep the water fresh and how it helps, you know, keep our soil and our air good for us. How it helps the Earth."

Although Reid grew up in Toronto, he says he always felt a strong connection to nature.

"I always wanted to get out, you know, like going to High Park and places like that where there were lots of trees so I could kind of hang out there," he said.

In 1979, he moved to North Bay where he worked as a forest ranger and every year planting trees was part of his job. 

"At the end of the contract I might have a few hundred trees at home and with nowhere to really plant them," Reid said. 

"I just started handing them out to people."

Reid got his family involved and created a formal tree giveaway enterprise called Green Side Up.

The name came from his time training tree planters, when someone asked him the one thing they should remember when they're out in the field.

"And so it only took me a second and I said, 'Well look, make sure the green side is up and the tree is going to survive,'" Reid said.