Calling on Ottawa’s Community Green Stewards! 

Did you know that there are many things that you can do to be a green steward in your neighbourhood? For one, CAFES is continuing its Neighbourhood Tree Canopy Regeneration & Stewardship project to encourage, connect and provide knowledge and resources to local community tree teams and volunteers.

There are many ways to improve and expand Ottawa’s tree canopy and greenspaces, and different neighbourhood initiatives have different levels of effort and different numbers of volunteers needed to complete the mission. For example, Kanata Beaverbrook, Centretown, and Old Ottawa South have on-going multi-year, big team efforts behind the Neighbourwoods tree inventory methodology to assess the health of their urban forests in depth. Meanwhile, the Old Ottawa East Tree Troop purchased tree saplings for planting in their neighbourhood backyards, and Champlain Park Community Association and Big Trees of Kitchissippi are rightfully proud of their depave and Miyawaki forest initiatives. And we know that pollinator gardens are springing up in many places that were mere grass before!

Ottawa ‘officially’ aims to have an urban tree canopy cover of 40% with an equitable distribution. To make this become a reality, we all need to help advocate in our neighbourhoods for street and front yard planting of tall native trees that will shade, cool and beautify your environment. For small volunteer teams, families, or individuals, a simple action you can take is to do neighbourhood walk-abouts to identify front yards where there are ‘missing and lost trees’, and encourage these neighbours to request the City’s Trees in Trust program to plant a large tree on the City-owned road allowance – for free. You can order Trees in Trust promotional cards from CAFES at [email protected] and then drop them in mail boxes in your neighbourhood.

Do you have questions about what kind of tree is suitable for your backyard planting? You can consult local resources such as the CAFES Ottawa Urban Tree Manual or the Ottawa Area Native Trees, Shrubs and Vines Database. Look for native species and consider whether you would like to plant a fruit or nut-bearing tree that will provide not only habitat but also food for our fellow creatures.

If you want to connect to CAFES, join up with the CAFES Tree Caucus, and get connected to green stewards in your neighbourhood, contact us at [email protected].

The Neighbourhood Canopy Regeneration Project is an initiative of CAFES in partnership with the Peace and Environment Centre (PERC). We gratefully acknowledge funding from TD Friends of the Environment Foundation.