St. Albert students are giving the city back to Nature, one tree at a time.
This week Grade 11 and 12 students from Bellerose planted trees in the Lacombe Lake parkway, which is on the site of an old railway spur-line near Lindbergh Crescent. The site has a rough, swampy terrain and it was a difficult area for the city to maintain. Nonetheless, for some 30 summers, mowing crews would attack it and try to hack the wild stuff down.
Now, thanks to the City of St. Albert’s naturalization program, which has been supplemented in the past three years by Bellerose-student plantings, the area has become a beautiful and peaceful walkway through a forest.
“It began as a legacy project for the Grade 12 students three years ago,” said Bellerose teacher Yvonne Jones, who heads up the Bellerose Eco-action group.
Jones explained that the Grade 12 students planted oak trees to commemorate their graduation but in addition, native shrubs such as wild roses, buffalo berries, saskatoons and red osier dogwood trees were planted.
“Each year the Grade 12 students apply for a grant and they raise their own funds for the trees. Each year they planted two oak trees and now there are six growing in that area, which is being naturalized by the city. It is becoming quite nice now,” Jones said.
This spring alone, hundreds of trees and shrubs will be planted in areas that used to be maintained and mowed by city staff . All those yearly plantings are making a noticeable change to those parks.
“There are a total of six different plantings this year,” said Erin Gluck, the City of St. Albert’s Community Recreation Coordinator.
A similar legacy project by students from St. Albert High added dozens of shrubs to McMillan Park near the trestle bridge in the area across from Lions Park.
Earlier this spring St. Albert Scouts planted 350 shrubs on the train-track slope near Lions Park. The Junior Forest Wardens followed up in the same area by planting 636 coniferous trees.
On Arbour Day, 500 Grade 1 students from nine different St. Albert schools planted 600 trees behind the Larose Park clubhouse. At the end of June, students from NAIT’s St. Albert campus will join with students from Ă©cole Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d’Youville to plant trees near the old log cabin on Sturgeon Road.
“All these projects add more structure to the area. They are native plants, so they add food and shelter for the birds. In many cases, the natural shrubs also act as sound barriers and there is an environmental plus because if there is less mowing, there is less use of pesticides, weed control and gas,” Gluck said.
Gluck acknowledged a concern by residents in some areas about the naturalization process, because some people prefer having parks that are manicured and weed-free.
“In an urban setting, I think you need both. You need manicured parks but you also need a place to walk that gives you the feeling of being away from the city, perhaps in a forest. You need places, and forests, where kids can feel as if it’s a place to have adventures and where they can connect with natural spaces,” she said.
By planting trees and shrubs, city youth begin to take ownership of their community, Gluck said.
“They are absolutely changing their community. I know of at least one St. Albert grad, who comes back home and the first thing she does is go to check how the trees are doing. The kids from two schools now play in an area near Willoughby Park, where we had a lot of trouble because grass wouldn’t grow. Now there are mallards nesting in that naturalized area. How cool is that?” asked Gluck.
