Evergreen

Evergreen is coming to Oakville in search of volunteers to help make Canadian communities more livable through sustainable greening projects.

Many volunteering opportunities are across the GTA and Metro Vancouver area and happen from spring to fall. They include planting and stewardship activities, special events and festivals, and seasonal teams.

Oakville is having a community stewardship event at the Donovan Bailey Park on April 27 at 6 p.m.

Native trees and shrubs are planted in the park system throughout Oakville including Donovan Bailey Park, which is a long thin trail system that runs through various residential communities.

“There are a bunch of small plantings done throughout that trail system, and this was done several years ago, so now we are going to go back in and just do a little bit of follow up searching to them. So its stuff like rerouting invasive species, probably doing some pruning and then trimming down of the plants that have survived and started to grow kind of out of control, and then putting in more native plants and trees and shrubs to fill up any spaces that there may be,” said JR Leo, Evergreen’s project manager of Downsview Park and Halton Region.

Tools and equipment are provided for all volunteers, and no experience is necessary. Any age is accepted with parent or guardian supervision under 14, and consent under 18. Evergreen typically aims for 20 to 30 volunteers at the events.

“I would say the most rewarding thing is we work really closely with, well specifically here in Toronto, with communities that don’t have access to a lot of green space or parks. So when those members of the community manage to come out to our tree planting events or to our activities at evergreen brick works, generally there is a lot of excitement and a lot of those who are really keen to utilize the space. That’s really rewarding just providing those opportunities for individuals to reconnect with nature,” said Mathew Hupfield, Evergreen’s Development Coordinator of Foundations and Government.

Evergreen is a national charity, and Evergreen Brick Works is a new community environmental centre in the Don Valley. It was created as a centre for education programs for school groups, families and individuals to learn and strengthen the relationship between communities and nature through modeling sustainable urban development.

“Previously a lot of our greening efforts were focused on our national program which was based across Canada, and now with Evergreen Brick Works, its a very sizable portion, located in the heart of the Don Valley in Toronto. So focusing our efforts on engaging communities around that site is a very large component of our efforts now,” said Hupfield.