City council has funded five eco-projects which will grow St. Albert’s forests and community gardens.
St. Albert city council approved the 2021 Environmental Initiatives Grants Jan. 31 as part of its consent agenda.
The annual grants give community groups up to $5,000 to fund projects which encourage sustainability and advance the city’s environmental master plan. Grant recipients are recommended by the city’s environmental advisory committee in around October, with funded projects typically happening the next year. The city paused the grants in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Council approved $19,912 worth of funding for five community projects. This includes $5,000 to plant native trees and restore a natural boundary along Cunningham Road by Leo Nickerson and $5,000 to expand the permaculture community garden in Lacombe Park.
Books, trees, and potatoes
The Big Lake Environment Support Society received $2,250 to publish a pocket-sized guide to the animals of Big Lake.
BLESS has previously published pocket guides for Big Lake’s birds and plants, said group spokesperson Miles Constable. This latest book, which has been in the works for several years, will feature information and photos of about 60 mammals, reptiles, and amphibians in the lake region.
“There are a lot of people who are very urban now and they don’t know the difference between a moose and a deer,” Constable said, adding that new immigrants might also be unfamiliar with Alberta’s mammals.
Constable said this grant will cover printing costs and help the group buy more local photos for the book. He expected the book would be ready for sale at the Musée Héritage Museum this summer as a fundraiser for BLESS.
Grade 10 Bellerose student Cole Van Wyk and his team received $2,662 to plant trees in Riverlot 56.
Van Wyk rallied 40 people last June to plant about 325 trees in the lower part of Riverlot 56.
“It was pretty incredible,” he said of the experience.
“It made me really fall in love with Riverlot 56.”
Van Wyk said he had so much fun with last year’s planting that he decided to do another one. This time, he has teamed up with about 45 Bellerose and W.D. Cuts students to plant about 600 shrubs and trees in the open field by Poundmaker Road near Kingswood. The trees should help screen the forest from traffic (particularly from the future route of 127th Street) and protect future plantings in this area.
In an email, Dan Stoker of the Riverlot 56 Natural Area Society, which has backed Van Wyk’s project, noted how Van Wyk’s work is an extension of a re-naturalization project started in the river lot in 2014 to control invasive weeds. This latest project will enhance biodiversity, control weeds, and attract birds.
Van Wyk said he and his team hope to plant the trees in late May or early June.
Ashley King is part of a group of Braeside residents who received $5,000 to create a pop-up garden in their neighbourhood.
King said the idea for the garden came up last year during a neighbourhood Halloween party. Residents had been sharing produce from their home gardens during the pandemic and felt a common garden could bring the neighbourhood closer together. Since Braeside doesn’t have a lot of open fields available, they decided to build a portable garden with raised beds which could be put away during the winter.
King said she and the rest of the garden group hope to build about a dozen raised beds of different sizes and heights to accommodate youths and wheelchairs. The garden should roll out somewhere in Braeside this May.
Applications for the 2022 Environmental Initiatives Grants open in October. Call 780-459-1735 or email [email protected] for details.
