Recycle your Christmas Tree at Champlain Park

Recycle your 🌲 Tree at the Champlain Park Baseball Diamond, anytime in January!!

Give your old Christmas tree a ‘second life’ by donating it to the Kichi Sibi Winter Trail. Trees will be used to create wind breaks and safety barriers/cordons at various locations along the Winter Trail at Remic Rapids. Trees can be brought to the North East corner of the Champlain Park baseball diamond anytime in January, 2023. The Winter Trail team will then make sure they get to where they are needed.

Thank you from the Kichi Sibi Winter Trail Team, and happy skiing!

Webinar featuring our Pollinator Garden – November 29

Champlain Park’s experience with the pollinator garden and community forests will be featured tomorrow, Tuesday, November 29 in a webinar series for the Year of the Ecological Garden, hosted by the Society for Organic Urban Land Care (SOUL). Champlain Park received an award for its work from SOUL earlier in 2022.

Tickets are free upon registration at the SOUL website: https://organiclandcare.ca/2022_Series

Previous presentations on a wide range of gardening topics are also posted to the site, which contains a wealth of experience from across North America, on topics ranging from urban agriculture, ecological turf care, greener greenspaces, etc.

Cheers, Daniel Buckles (the speaker for tomorrow).

Leaf Drop Leftover Garden Bags

Still doing garden work? Don’t buy leaf litter bags! Instead, pick up all you need from the stash created by the neighborhood leaf drop (450 bags of compostable leaves collected). Pick up in front yard of 201 Daniel avenue, asap.

Daniel Buckles

Leaf Drop Job Done!

2022 Champlain Park “Help Build a Forest” Leaf Drop

NO additional leaves are needed to protect and mulch trees at the Pontiac street mini-forest. Thank you to all that contributed their “community leaf wealth” to the cause. It keeps the organic matter in the community, and makes for a great growing environment.

Champlain Park Community Association – Environment Committee

Last Chance Leaf Drop – October 30

2022 Champlain Park “Help Build a Forest” Leaf Drop

The final week of our leaf collection campaign is here – a very big thank you to those who have already contributed! Be sure to bag-up your tree leaves and bring them to the north end of Champlain Park (the de-paved section of Pontiac Ave,) between Cowley Ave. and Carleton Ave. No garden waste or other materials, please. Volunteers will accept your tree leaf donations (in compostable bags) at the concrete planters or on the terraces from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m..

Your leaves will be put to good use in our neighbourhood’s newest tree planting sites. Leaf bags will be inspected on your arrival at the drop-off site. Volunteers also plan to collect bagged leaves from neighbourhood driveways on the City’s regularly scheduled waste collection day. Please help them out by slightly separating your tree leaf waste bags from other yard waste on collection day.

Thank you for all of your support in helping us to rehabilitate our community’s natural green spaces!

Champlain Park Community Association – Environment Committee

Leaf Drop – October 23, 30

2022 Champlain Park “Help Build a Forest” Leaf Drop

Week two of our leaf collection campaign is here-a big thank you to those who have already contributed! Be sure to bag-up your tree leaves and bring them to the north end of Champlain Park (the de-paved section of Pontiac Ave,) between Cowley Ave. and Carleton Ave. No garden waste or other materials, please. Volunteers will accept your tree leaf donations (in compostable bags) at the concrete planters from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on the following Sunday mornings: October 23, and 30.

[Leaf Drop Zone on Pontiac]

Your leaves will be put to good use in our neighbourhood’s newest tree planting sites. Leaf bags will be inspected on your arrival at the drop-off site. Volunteers also plan to collect bagged leaves from neighbourhood driveways on the City’s regularly scheduled waste collection day. Please help them out by slightly separating your tree leaf waste bags from other yard waste on collection day.

Thank you for all of your support in helping us to rehabilitate our community’s natural green spaces!

Champlain Park Community Association – Environment Committee

Leaf Drop – October 16, 23, 30

2022 Champlain Park “Help Build a Forest” Leaf Drop

What do you do when “Leaf Peeper” season is over? All those brightly colored leaves are covering your lawn, in your gutters, and in your garden. Bag ‘em up and bring them to the north end of Champlain Park (the de-paved section of Pontiac Ave,) between Cowley Ave. and Carleton Ave. Volunteers will accept your tree leaf donations at this site, open from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on the following Sunday mornings: October 16, 23, and 30.

[Leaf Drop Zone on Pontiac]

The Champlain Park Environment Committee will put the leaves to good use in our neighbourhood’s newest tree planting sites! Only ‘clean tree leaf litter’ in compostable paper bags will be accepted and bags will be inspected on your arrival at drop-off site. No garden waste or other materials, please. There is a possibility that we can offer a leaf pick-up service on Oct. 23 for those who cannot bring bags to park. More information to be confirmed in reminder posts every Thursday in October.

Happy raking and thank you for all of your support in helping us to rehabilitate our community’s natural green spaces!

Champlain Park Community Association – Environment Committee

Tree Seedlings – October 15

via Heather…

FYI. Hi. In case you are interested, there are free trees on offer. As for the other three docs: the CAFES Tree Manual is pretty darn good; Ecology Ottawa’s “How to Plant” is a simple guide for people who don’t already know how to plant trees; and, the Just Food Community Farm map is neat for those interested in taking a look at what’s being done on NCC lands by some Ottawa groups vis a vis sustainable agriculture. It could be an interesting half-day trip for families.
Continue reading “Tree Seedlings – October 15” →

Naturehood Club Fall Bird Walks

Upcoming Outings

Fall Bird Walks

Date: Tuesday mornings (September 13- ?)
Time: 7:00 AM – 7:45 AM
Location: Pollinator Garden (north end of Carleton Avenue)
Leader: Jennifer Neate

Description:
As we move into September and the days grow shorter, the fall migrants are starting to travel through Champlain Park. Come out and meet some of the resident and migrant birds of your naturehood on this family-friendly outing. Fall birds are notoriously challenging to identify with their faded plumage and lack of song. So, prepare to put your powers of observation to the test as we attempt to locate and identify migrants as they prepare for their long journey south. Bring your curiosity, a set of binoculars and a bird field guide, if you have one.

Registration is not required but if you would like to be notified of cancellations due to weather, feel free to send an email to jen@spiritwalkers.ca with the subject: “Naturehood Outing.” You may also email me if you would like to be added to the Naturehood Club list to be informed of future events.

Heritage Oak Legacy Project

As many of you know, a “Champlain Oak” some 170 years old (pre-confederation) was lost on Patricia Avenue following the “derecho” storm in May, 2022. A link to the full story of “The Party Tree” is here: https://www.champlainoaks.net/post/ode-to-the-party-tree.

Some of the wood from the tree was “rescued,” with the help of many neighbours. It has been milled for future projects, once it has dried.

In the meantime, you can have a piece of the legacy in the form of a slab from the milled lumber (picture above). The slabs come in various lengths (2 feet to 6 feet), widths (4-8 inches) and thicknesses (2-4 inches), including bark.

With a minimum of work, they can be converted into a charcuterie cheese board, coat rack, key-holder, or wood feature in your house or yard (oak will last many years outdoors).

All residents of Champlain Park are welcome to pick one up, on a first come, first served basis. Text me at 613-807-8048. A donation would be welcome, and go towards a nursery for replacement with seedlings from remaining Champlain Oaks in the neighbourhood.

Daniel Buckles