'Not quite snow': Excessive tree seeds littering Manitoba

Aspen seeds are blanketing the ground in Manitoba. June 8, 2022. (Source: Glenn Pismenny/CTV News)

As spring turns to summer, trees in southern Manitoba are beginning to spread their seeds. But in a few areas, it’s looking like freshly fallen snow.

“Not quite snow, it’s mostly aspen seeds,” said Barrett Miller, the group services manager of Fort Whyte Alive. “The weather has lined up that we haven’t had a big rainfall to wash it away.”

The heavier than normal seed fall is because of the trees being stressed due to weather.

“Too much water, not enough water, and they’re responding to these stressors in different ways,” said Reta Saboroski, an arborist with Bee EZ Tree Service in Brandon. “That’s basically coming down to heavy seed loads because they feel like they’re dying.”

Residents that end up with a high amount of seed in their yards will need to be mindful of cleaning them up in certain spots.

“You’ll want to make sure that you clean out the radiators on your air conditioners because it’ll plug those up, and then it won’t function properly,” said Jean Gonty, owner of Gontree Tree Service. “Basically, the only thing you can do is make sure that everything’s clean.”

The large amounts of snow this past winter and rain this spring means next year shouldn’t see as heavy a seed load.

“With the stress on those trees, they definitely thought this might be it and needed to get millions of copies of themselves out there,” said Miller. “Hopefully, the water that we’ve got so far on the land this year calms them down for next.”