Champlain Park Environmental Strategy

The Champlain Park Community Environment Strategy

– Sustainable living in a healthy urban forest –

The Champlain Park Community Environment Strategy delivers on the Champlain Park Community Association (CPCA) Plan Goal #2: Sustainable living in a healthy urban forest. The strategy is meant to provide an overview of the community’s commitment to the environment, current and future potential projects being led by residents of the community and a list of resources that can be used to implement the strategy.

Objective:

To engage residents to enhance our environment, reduce our environmental footprint including our carbon emissions, and nurture biodiversity in our unique mature urban forest.

This will be accomplished by working in the following areas:

Lower our waste
- Less garbage
- Promote reducing/reusing/recycling/composting
- Promote ethical/environmental considerations in our consumption
Lower our carbon footprint from:
- Heat
- Electricity
- Transportation
Maintain/Increase our neighbourhood biodiversity including for:
- Trees/plants
- Wildlife
- Food production: i.e. gardens, etc…

Types of actions that can be supported:

Information for individual actions
Group action – small collection of individuals
Collective/community action
Advocacy / point of contact for the community on environmental matters

Initiatives/Projects

Area		Current Projects	Lead
1. Lower Waste	Overall	Enviro Tips	N.Xenos
	Less garbage	Champlain Park Clean-up	Andrea & Ian
	Promote Reducing/reusing/recycling/composting	Champlain Park-Island Park annual garage sale
	Promote ethical/environmental considerations in our consumption
2. Lower Carbon	Overall	–ClimateOttawa.ca –Ecology Ottawa Community Network	C.Hodgson C.Hodgson
	Heat	Bullfrog (bullfrogpower.com)	N.Xenos
	Electricity	Bullfrog (bullfrogpower.com)	N.Xenos
		Transportation
3. Increase Biodiversity	Trees/plants	–Champlain Oaks –Urban Forest Green spaces	D.Buckle A.Bradley
	Wildlife
	Food production

Note: These projects are initiatives being undertaken by community residents, they are not necessarily formally endorsed by the CPCA.

Potential future projects/ideas:

Champlain Park acts as a river steward
Virtucar
Chimney swift monitoring
Installation of bat houses
E-waste – Ontario Electronic Stewardship
Community garden
Further researching information on disposal of specialized waste
Community composting
Community nurseries

Potential resources:

Overall: Environmental Grants Directory put together by the City of Ottawa (http://ottawa.ca/en/city_hall/funding/enviro/index.html)
Federal
- EC: EcoAction Community Funding Program (Nov. 1 deadline) & others: http://ec.gc.ca/financement-funding/default.asp?lang=En&n=923047A0-1
Provincial
- i.e. Tree seedlings available
Municipal
- Communty Environmental Projects Grants (end of April deadline)
- Forestry Services – will work with community to plant trees (TREE@ottawa.ca)
Community (volunteers, wealth of expertise locally, etc…)
CPCA Community Improvement Projects: https://urbanforestgreenspaces.wordpress.com/project-ideas-homepage/community-project-proposal-submission-form
NGOs
Students: Carleton, U of Ottawa, High School (for credit)

Other organizations to work/partner with or be aware of:

Ecology Ottawa
Ottawa Stewardship: http://www.ottawastewardship.org/
Greenspace Alliance of Canada’s Capital
Federation of Community Associations
Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods
Ottawa Forest and Greenspace Committee
Riverkeepers
Slow west
Ontario Urban Forest Council
Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op
Ottawa Forest and Greenspace Advisory Committee
Rideau Valley Conservation Authority
Community Association Forum for Environmental Sustainability (CAFES)
Others…

This is an evergreen document – please feel free to comment, propose changes, additions, etc…

Want to volunteer for an existing initiative or have a good new idea for a project?

Contact Nick Xenos, CPCA Environment Coordinator at xenosn@yahoo.com