Here are some quick facts and suggestions for an environmentally friendlier Christmas from the Enviro Crew of OOS’s Tree Team.

As part of the Stage 2 O-Train South Extension project, Brewer Park is getting an upgrade to the shoreline that will benefit aquatic life and the community.

Construction crews will carve out a horseshoe-shaped section of land at Brewer Park to create an inlet and a small island, or embayment. This inlet will help offset the impacted shoreline at the site of the Rideau River Pedestrian Bridge, while helping to manage the flow of the river, mitigate flooding and create additional aquatic habitats. Stumps and roots of trees required to be removed for the installation of the Rideau River Pedestrian Bridge will be strategically placed in the river in order to create an improved aquatic habitat.

The Bridge-to-Bridge Reforestation Group, a collection of Old Ottawa South residents, has been planting and maintaining trees for more than a dozen years in the area between Bronson Avenue and Canal Woods Terrace. Many residents have remarked on the well-treed area south of the Bronson Bridge which comprises a healthy mix of trees including several varieties of spruce and pine as well as cedar, red oak, honey locust, and two progeny of the maple tree for which the Maple Leaf Forever was written. As an unintended acknowledgement of the group’s reforestation efforts, the neighbouring street, Bronson Place, was renamed Canal Woods Terrace.

Registration is now open for the fall campaign, from September 13 until October 15, 2021. Clean-up kits will be made available for pick-up at seven City of Ottawa facilities that are able to safely accommodate their distribution. 

On September 15, 2021, at 6 p.m., join the Enviro Crew of Old Ottawa South on Zoom for a free vegetarian cooking class! You can participate from your own kitchen and learn how to prepare a savoury vegetarian paella from Chef Ben from Chef’s Paradise.

It narrowly escaped destruction during an early 90s development project. Volunteers replanted it; annual spring flooding along the Rideau River flattened it; and now its neighbours—who live in the beaver lodge down the bank—happily feast on it.

Each of its five, massive trunks—which snake in all directions from its core—sends up enough sinewy limbs to seem as if this one tree is growing an entire forest, all on its own. One of those limbs is arched like a secret doorway. Several have large chunks chewed out of them. Others, toppled and hanging on by strips, still sprout viable branches rippling with leaves.

On Thursday, June 24, 2021, the Enviro Crew will be talking with Seth Klein, author of A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency.

The City of Ottawa’s 2021 Cleaning the Capital Program returns for the spring campaign, from April 15 to May 15. Early registration has begun. To register:

As someone who has drawn thousands of tree symbols on landscape plans over a 15-year career in landscape architecture, it is second nature for me to notice every tree I pass as I move through urban landscapes.

What is the surrounding environment? Does the tree have enough soil? Is it exposed to road salt? Has it been hit by a snowplow or damaged by a weed whacker? Was it planted at the right depth? Has a homeowner widened the driveway and removed a chunk of the root system? There are so many things to look for and as I do, I wonder how many of the trees on my plans have survived. Sadly, I know some have died from strangulation, or girdling as it is referred to with trees.

The Enviro Crew of Old Ottawa South has launched Nix the Six campaign. Each month we'll focus on one of the six single-use plastic items slated to be banned by the federal government.