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The paved asphalt yard behind the École Barthélémy-Vimont annex on Saint-Roch Street in Park Extension is on its way to becoming a cooler, greener space where school children can play, thanks to a program of collaborative tree-planting, made possible by Tree Canada, a non-profit group dedicated to planting trees, and some dedicated environmental activists from Park Extension.
By the time the five trees that were planted over the past summer behind the school are tall enough to climb, the children who attend École Barthélémy-Vimont annex will have graduated. But they'll be able to tell future generations of grade-schoolers that they helped with the planting.
Urban heat islands
VRAC Environnement, a local ecological group that is coordinating the effort, hopes to generate interest from businesses and other sponsors willing to improve the environment, while adding trees to their property and sprucing up the surroundings. Apart from improving the landscape, another important reason the two groups have for planting more trees in an inner-city neighbourhood like Park Extension is to control an environmental phenomenon known as urban heat islands.
UHIs are areas in large cities that are significantly warmer than the surrounding territory. The temperature difference usually is greater at night than during the day and greater in winter than in summer. The main cause is modification of the natural land surface — for example, when an entire school yard is paved over and retains a lot of heat from the sun beating down during the day. Restoring greenery by planting a lot of trees and shrubs is believed to be one way of bringing the temperature down to normal.
School grounds program
Tree Canada, based in Ottawa with a branch office in Quebec, was founded in 1992 and provides education, technical assistance, resources and financial support through working partnerships, to encourage Canadians to plant and care for trees, in an effort to help reduce the harmful effects of carbon dioxide emissions. Tree Canada claims it is "a leader in promoting the value of urban forests in Canada." The group's Greening Canada's School Grounds program was created with the premise that there is a need to protect the health of school children by sheltering them from harmful UVB sun rays.
Since trees strategically placed on school grounds offer students some reprieve from the sun, and the neighbourhood school ground is the heart of a child's community, "children deserve an interesting, aesthetically pleasing environment," Tree Canada says. The Greening Canada's School Grounds Program receives financial support from Shell Canada, which has contributed $350,000 over the last three years. Other environmentally-conscious companies that have donated to the program include GAP, Telus and Home Hardware.
Applications accepted
To apply for the Greening Canada's School Grounds Program, applicants are asked to complete an Invitation for Proposal (available on the web site), and send it to the Tree Canada Foundation. Applicants are free to apply as often as they wish as Tree Canada is constantly in contact with corporate sponsors. An attempt is made to keep requests on file for 24 months after the receipt of applications. Successful applicants only are notified by April 15 and August 15 annually. Web address: www.treecanada.ca.
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