Rebuilding Ottawa’s Forest Canopy

In partnership with the City of Ottawa, GentleWays for OurPlanet presented its second annual community tree-planting event on October 14 at Mowat Farm Park, in the heart of Barrhaven West. The day was glorious and sunny with the perfect temperature for planting! The City of Ottawa crew were on the ground with the shovels, mulch, and trees, while the 40+ volunteers were eager to start planting following the opening ceremony: some introductory comments by GentleWays founder, Dr. Aida Warah, and words from the guests of honour.

The volunteers were from youth groups from the Lebanese-Canadian community in Ottawa and from local, neighbourhood residents. This is part of GentleWays’ strategy to support cultural groups to play a stronger role in protecting the environment and mitigating climate change. Barrhaven West Councillor David Hill -one of the first to arrive on his bicycle - highlighted his commitment to a greener Ottawa and shared fondly about his experience planting cedars in Bsharri, Lebanon. In his concluding remarks, H.E Fadi Ziadeh the Ambassador of Lebanon to Canada said: “Let’s remind ourselves that we need to do everything we can to safeguard our planet so humanity may continue to flourish.”

H.E. and the Consul, Kamel CheikhAli also joyfully planted a few trees before moving on to their next engagement. 

Barrhaven has one of the lowest tree canopy rates in Ottawa, the community is second to last place with the coverage only at 23%. The City is trying to increase the neighbourhood tree canopy to 40% in each community. Moreover, Barrhaven has lost thousands of trees due to severe storms over the last couple of years. In approximately two and half hours, the volunteers planted 325 native trees and shrubs that grow well in the area including pine, oak, hackberry dogwood, cedar, maple, white spruce, and hemlock. This green project will help to reach the city’s tree planting targets and improve the beautification of the park.

According to the City’s Tree Canopy Assessment, research shows that more tree canopy coverage provides residents with cooler summer temperatures and has also been shown to increase academic performance in children.

The day felt like a festival with music and people having fun together. Snacks and lunch were provided to all volunteers and guests by the event sponsors. Domino’s Pizza, by Owner/Partner Himanshu Choudhry, provided lunch, and SJKC Fashion by CEO Carole Nehme provided loads of snacks and drinks.  A touch of magic was added by Colette Corban and Ashley Janna, both members of the Steering Committee, who handed out gifts to five volunteers whose names were drawn from the list of volunteers. Volunteering certificates were given at the end of the ceremony. Both the Ottawa Citizen and the Barrhaven Independent run stories about the event.

GentleWays for OurPlanet’ s mission is focused on enabling individuals in Ottawa to take pro- environmental action to help mitigate climate change.  In addition to community tree planting events, their current projects include promoting greater use of the green bin, and promoting more plant-based options in restaurant menus with a grant from the City of Ottawa.  They have also developed and released in 2021 a free mobile app, the i4ThePlanet, through which 313 trees have been planted in Ottawa over the past year in collaboration with Ecology Ottawa and OneTree Planted.

This article was jointly written by Dhruv Vallath, GentleWays for OurPlanet Engagement Advisor/Intern, and Aïda Warah, PhD., the founder and executive director of GentleWays for OurPlanet.