For more than a week, this non-profit organization (NPO) has been working to plant 57 trees at the Notre-Dame-du-Canada school in the Vanier sector.
Not only small trees are planted in the schoolyard, but also American elms, lindens, yellow birches and white spruces. (Rights-of-way)
“And these are not little Japanese lilacs, but American elms, lindens, yellow birches, white spruces. These are gigantic trees with a trunk already several millimeters long and a root ball of around 450 pounds,” mentions Mathieu Caron.
Mathieu Caron is preparing to plant a tree during the family chore co-organized with the Ruche Vanier, one of the organizations of the Front Basse-Ville-Limoilou-Vanier (BVLV). (Rights-of-way)
The latter is convinced that the schoolyard will have the most beautiful urban forest in Vanier, once all the trees are mature, in around forty years.
Afforest vulnerable neighborhoods
This Emprises initiative is part of the objective of planting 500 trees on non-municipal land in the Limoilou, Basse-Ville and Vanier area.
“It is a territory deliberately modeled on the territory identified as vulnerable by Public Health in its report My environment, my health and therefore a priority for tree planting,” says Mr. Caron.
In this report published in March 2023, the Health Department of the Capitale-Nationale recommends aiming for a canopy index of at least 30% in these three neighborhoods, although a canopy index of 40% would provide more ecological benefits , social and economic.
The Front Basse-Ville-Limoilou-Vanier (BVLV) is on track to achieve its goal of planting 500 trees. (Rights-of-way)
To achieve this, Emprises initiated the Front Basse-Ville, Limoilou et Vanier (BVLV) bringing together nine community organizations, including the Littoral Est Citizen Table, La Ruche Vanier, Engrenage Saint-Roch, as well as representatives from the Saint-Sauveur, Saint-Roch, Vieux-Limoilou, Lairet, Maizerets and Vanier.
This collective has set a quantitative objective of planting 500 trees in 2024 with the collaboration of the City. The municipal administration financed 2,000 trees for the Collectif Canopée organization in order to root them on private land. The Front BVLV therefore reserved a quarter of it.
“It will take several years before these neighborhoods are no longer a priority for reforestation efforts. We need to pamper this large area before planting trees in a golf course west of Quebec,” says Mathieu Caron.
“It is easier to add greenery to a large private plot of land in Cap-Rouge than to a backyard in Vieux-Limoilou. But it is a sector which needs it more since it is too mineralized,” he adds.
The collective is entering the final sprint of the planting season and is on track to exceed its goal. Emprises will have helped plant 200 trees.
