Posted by: Peter Showler

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.

This year, on Saturday, October 2, 2021 with the support and assistance of the City of Ottawa, the group planted forty-five trees south of Sunnyside in the area between Bronson and Sloan Avenue, opposite Brewer Pool. Approximately thirty planters, including fifteen cub scouts from the 17th Southminster scout pack, planted healthy young Colorado spruce, pine, and some deciduous trees throughout the area.

“It was our best planting yet”, said Noel Lomer, a leader of the Bridge-to-Bridge Group. “This year, we had very good support from the city. The trees were older and in excellent condition. Along with the trees, the city provided planting instruction from City Forester, Laura Wood, and three support workers who delivered both mulch and planting advice to the planters. It was a great community effort between our local volunteers and the city.”

It was good to have the cub scouts there as well. Bridge-to-Bridge planting projects have always included the children of the volunteer planters. From seven to seventy-seven, the planters are an age diverse group. The cub scouts were well organized and really contributed to the planting. For the next several years, those kids will be able walk by and watch their saplings grow into mature trees.

The Bridge-to-Bridge Group normally undertakes two planting projects a year in spring and fall. Anyone interested in being on the group’s mailing list for spring planting can e-mail showler@primus.ca.

Peter Showler is one of the leaders of the Bridge-to-Bridge Tree Planting Group.

Featured in the November 2021 OSCAR.