St. Albert’s white spruce forest will grow a bit bigger this weekend thanks to some cash from a local bank.
About 40 local volunteers will plant about 180 white spruce seedlings in the Grey Nuns White Spruce Park this Sept. 21. It’s the first major public tree planting to take place in the park.
The planting was funded by a $2,400 grant from the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, said Margo Brenneis, community recreation co-ordinator with the City of St. Albert.
“It’s a great fit for us,” she said, as the city wanted to add more young trees to the forest to improve its age distribution and sustainability.
The planting will take place in the southwest grove of the forest – an area suffering from a lot of wind damage, said city arborist Kevin Veenstra.
“It grows trees like crazy,” he said, as the grove used to be cultivated farmland.
“You find these little tiny seedlings everywhere.”
Mayor Nolan Crouse is expected to plant a ceremonial mature spruce on the site, Veenstra said. Public works staffers and members of the Grey Nuns White Spruce Park advisory committee will also take part.
City residents can make St. Albert a little neater this weekend by signing up for the citywide cleanup.
St. Albert’s third annual City-Wide Cleanup runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. this Sept. 20. The event has volunteers fan out across the city to clean up parks and streets.
This year, the registration desk for the event will be at Rotary Park to coincide with the park’s grand opening, said event co-ordinator Nicole Synowec.
Volunteers should come to the registration desk to pick a part of the city that they want to clean up and get their bags and gloves, Synowec said. Bags should be left by any public trash-can for pickup.
Last year’s citywide cleanup collected some 838 pounds of trash.
Call Synowec at 780-459-1755 ext. 3030 for details.
