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A Year in Green
2023: A Recap
The end of 2023 is approaching fast and with it comes a time for reflection and gratitude! We would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the hard work and support that our volunteers, program participants and partners have contributed this year. This year has been significant for us, as we broke a number of major milestones.
Our 2023 tree planting season was highly successful! In collaboration with many community and corporate groups, we managed to plant 1740 native trees and shrubs across multiple locations including Beechnut Woods, Buttonbush Woods Park, and Joshua Creek Heritage Art Centre. We led a total of 9 tree planting events, training and engaging hundreds of volunteers. For a full list of our partners and supporters,
take a look here. It is wonderful to see all the support of these green initiatives in our community.
As part of our tree planting and stewardship initiatives, we created the first ever mini forest in Oakville! A mini forest is a community of native trees and shrubs planted tightly together based on the Miyawaki method. Miyawaki forests are believed to grow 10 x faster, 30 x denser and contain significantly more biodiversity. Since they are quick to establish and can be created on tiny urban sites, they are critical solutions for cities to rapidly build climate resilience. For this project, volunteers prepared the site and planted 340 trees and shrubs (including 26 different native species)! We are excited to maintain and track the growth of this mini forest over the next few years. If you are interested in learning more about this project, you can
click here to read all about it!
This year, we partnered with the Invasive Species Centre to tackle some of the troublesome species found in Oakville such as garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) and common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica). After providing over 130 volunteers with education and training, we managed to remove piles of these invasives from our streets, parks, and forests! If you walk through McCraney Creek, Shell Park, or Kingsford gardens, you might see a lot more space for native plants to bloom over the next few seasons.
We also helped create 2 new “learning” rain gardens in our community featuring over 200 native Carolinian shrubs and perennials. To support rain garden maintenance and installation, we led both in-person and online workshops that were modelled after Green Communities Canada’s DYI Raingarden workshop series. As part of the process, we received expert advice from Avesi Stormwater & Landscape Solutions. Overall, the initiative resulted in 10 rain gardens completed or initiated by the participants in our courses! These rain gardens highlight the potential for stormwater management on private property. After all, who wouldn’t want beautiful native plants that also catch runoff water?
Our
pollinator gardens are thriving thanks to the helping hands of our summer volunteers. Over 300 native wildflowers and grasses were added this year. Pollinator habitats and biodiversity were increased through our native plant sale in home gardens with 850 native perennials and 160 native trees and shrubs sold.
Inspiring younger generations is a big goal for Oakvillegreen, and this year was no exception. We worked closely with schools and community groups to deliver our GreenRoots and Pollinator Heroes programs. We reached over 500 students in Oakville by leading nature walks, native wildflower seedball making activities, and helping with Eco Clubs across the board! Through these activities, students learned about the importance of biodiversity - from smaller ecosystems like their gardens or schoolyards all the way up to globally interconnected biomes. They also took action to build and maintain pollinator gardens.
We continue to run Oakvillegreen’s Green Connections for Adults 55+ program with the aim to reduce social isolation and build community togetherness among older residents in Oakville. However, we haven’t just been busy working in the pollinator gardens, planting trees, and going on nature walks! We’ve also organised bus tours, led nature-based workshops, facilitated nature knowledge-exchange meetings, and held forest bathing sessions. We encourage all who are interested to join us for more fun, nature-based activities in the new year.
We loved being out in the community sharing our knowledge and passion for protecting and enhancing local green spaces. You may have seen or will see us at outreach events such as school fairs, Oakville Public Library events or local residents’ association annual picnic! In June we teamed up with Joshua Creek heritage Art Centre to celebrate Pollinator Week and engage the community in eco-learning and action. This multi-organization initiative was designed to promote conservation of our greenspaces in the Halton Region. The event celebrated the environmental work being done locally and was a call to action for driving sustainable conservation solutions for greener and healthier communities.
Overall, it has been a fantastic year for Oakvillegreen. We are very proud and thankful to our funders, partners, supporters, and volunteers. We can't wait to see you in 2024!
