Pollinator Garden in the News

Ecology Ottawa has a blog post about a recent visit to our pollinator garden and native species forest by a handful of city councillors. It’s a good review of the history and people who made this project work. The underlying point is to get the city to smooth the approvals process and encourage other such gardens.

Pollinator Patch Program

Help save the monarchs, bees, and other pollinators with these free resources

There’s been a significant decline in pollinators in the last 20 years. Without these important pollinators, life as we know it will change. But YOU can help by planting native plants on your property, and there’s a local Ottawa community group that can help you make that happen.

Not sure where to start? New to gardening? Our friends at Eco West Enders have got you covered. Anyone participating in their Pollinator Patch Program will receive FREE information on everything from how to set up your new garden, to where to source your native plants, as well as gaining online support through a private Facebook group and direct email to the Eco West Enders team.

They’ll also be selling native plants for $1 each on June 18th at the Stittsville Market At the Barn event.

Please join your 175K neighbours as we encourage them to naturalize their outdoor space to build a greener and more resilient future. We can do great things together!

For more information and to register to participate, visit ecowestenders.ca.

Paper about Champlain Park Forest Diversity Efforts Published!

Published in Trail & Landscape 57(2) April-June 2023

Community Stewardship and Biodiversity Enhancement of Public Greenspaces

Daniel Buckles^1,2, Catherine Shearer¹, Kris Phillips¹, Adrian Bradley¹, Chieu-Anh Ta³, Braydon Hall³ and John Thor Arnason^1,3*

1. Champlain Park Environment Committee, Kitchissippi, Ottawa ON
2. Sociology and Anthropology Department, Carleton University, Ottawa ON
3. Biology Department, University of Ottawa, Ottawa ON
* Corresponding authors: dbuckles@sas2.net, john.arnason@uottawa.ca

Abstract: Plant biodiversity in urban woodlands near the Ottawa River was assessed and found to have low native biodiversity. Community volunteers responded by planting native trees using various techniques (Hügelkultur mounds, Miyawaki or “Tiny Forest” plantations, terracing) and establishing several native pollinator gardens. Biodiversity enhancement included both native Great Lakes and St. Lawrence forest species and Carolinian species, with attention to ethnobotanical and forest food species as well as herbaceous plants supporting native pollinators. The experience suggests that community stewardship of public greenspaces offers an efficient and effective means to achieve meaningful conservation and public education outcomes.

Keywords: Native plants, Carolinian species, biodiversity enhancement, Hügelkultur mounds, medicinal plants, food forest, pollinator garden.

Get the PDF of the whole very well illustrated paper from Community Stewardship and Biodiversity Enhancement of Public Greenspaces.pdf

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).

Restoring Native Biodiversity

The Daniel Avenue turkey (A.K.A. the Patricia Avenue turkey) has delighted our front and back yard vistas all summer long, another sign of native biodiversity coming back to life in Champlain Park. Last summer a deer spent a month or so grazing the same area, rabbits abound everywhere, and we have enjoyed glimpses of foxes here and there. The ground hogs are not as much fun, or the occasional skunk, but overall relatively harmless creatures if left alone.

More widely appreciated are the trees and gardens along the de-paved section of Pontiac Avenue, and in various fragments of the NCC forest (A.K.A. the Champlain Woodlands). To celebrate these spaces, the Environment Committee has installed a sign at the ball diamond. The piece of wood is from the same Grandmother oak tree removed in 2011 from Northwestern Avenue that also graces the outside wall of the Field House (the dated cookie). The tree was a sapling in 1857, a decade before Canada became a country.

Sebastian Hadjiantoniou from Daniel Avenue created the sign while Mark Hartley of Clearview Avenue built the stand (and the earlier installation on the Field House). Our stalwart captain of engineering works, Kris Phillips of Northwestern Avenue dug the hole and poured the cement base. Daniel Buckles (Daniel on Daniel) launched the project, donated the wood and stickhandled the various bureaucracies to get it done.

Heartfelt thanks to the Champlain Park Community Association for important financial and administrative support, and to the office of Councillor Jeff Leiper, where a solution to the permissions puzzle was found. The City of Ottawa provided funding for tree planting on the various terraces, as did the the Ottawa family of Peter Sims (1980-2021), a committed climate activist.

We hope you are enjoying the trees and gardens this summer, along with the flowering and edible planters. The sign is intended to give local residents and the many people that pass through our community a bit of the story behind restoring native biodiversity in Champlain Park.

Little Forest and Pollinator Garden Tour – August 14

Tree and Garden Tour in Champlain Park

Sunday, August 14, 3:00 to 5:00 PM

Join John Arnason (Ethnobotanist), Owen Clarkin (Tree specialist), and Daniel Buckles (Community animator) for a tour of the pollinator gardens, “tiny forests,” and nearby woodlands of Champlain Park in Kitchissippi. Talks on plants, policies and the passion for nature.

Starts at 3:00 PM at the Field House, facing 150 Cowley Avenue.

Note: Outdoor event, physical distancing, masked or unmasked. Wear long pants and shoes, if you want to check out the trees in the forest.

Pollinator Garden is Open

The Champlain Park Community Association is pleased to welcome one and all to our neighbourhood’s public Pollinator Garden. Come enjoy the flowers and try to spot the Monarch Butterflies. Access can be gained on the side of the garden facing Pontiac St. Please remain on the pathways when visiting; feel free to bring some water for the plants.

While in the area you can also visit the new Rain Garden, Planters, and our nascent mini-forests along Pontiac St. So much to see-and it will only get even better with time.

Many thanks to our Committee green thumbs for all their hard work in curating, planting and caring for these wonderful additions to our neighbourhood-special thanks to Kris, John, Catherine, Daniel, Joscelyn and all of our Planter Caretakers!

Continue reading “Pollinator Garden is Open” →

Talk on Depaving, Building a Forest and Pollinator Garden – March 10

Thursday, March 10th – Daniel Buckles, of Champlain Park, will outline how the community turned a paved street into a model forest and a pollinator garden. The project won the 2020 award from the Society for Organic Urban LandCare in recognition of its benefits to local wildlife, the urban forest and public engagement.

Join the Riverview Park Community Association on Zoom for a virtual presentation from 7:00pm – 8:00pm on the date shown above. Each presentation will be followed by a short Q & A. To attend, please register by sending a message to forpgsottawa@gmail.com A link to the Zoom meeting will be mailed out to all registered participants a day before each session.

Their community association: https://riverviewparkca.com/
FORPGS stands for Friends of Riverview Park Green Spaces. They’re on Facebook.
The event was also mentioned in the Riverview Park Review – February 2022.

Greener Greenspace Award

via Daniel…

Champlain Park has been recognized by The Society for Organic Urban Land Care (SOUL) as a 2021 Greener Greenspace award winner. The evaluation committee “particularly appreciated that your project makes the most out of the opportunity to turn a paved street into regenerative gardens and model forests that not only benefit local wildlife and the urban forest but provide opportunities to engage the public.”

Yahoo! And thanks to the volunteers that made it happen (Daniel Buckles, Kris Philipps, Catherine Shearer, John Arnason, Adrian Bradley, Joscelyn Coolihan), and to the Champlain Park Community Association for moral and financial support.

[Greener Greenspace round logo]

Greener Greenspace Champlain Park Certificate of Recognition 2021.pdf

Encore! Biodiversity Celebration Continues – October 6

Encore! Biodiversity Celebration Continues Wednesday, October 6, 4:00 to 5:00 pm.

Eastern Bumblebee on Cosmos Sulphureus (Golden Cosmos), by Grace Nault, a young resident of Champlain Park.

Some 15 hardy souls braved the cool wet weather on Saturday to plant more than 40 trees into our latest “Tiny Forest”, including a collection of “Carolinian Forest” species to complement our “Native Pollinator Garden”.

See details on each through the links above, and tour the site with local experts on Wednesday, October 6 from 4:00 to 5:00 pm. Location? The north end of Champlain Park, at Pontiac and Cowley Avenue in Kitchissippi Ward, Ottawa. Plant acorns from our Heritage Bur Oaks and share ideas on how to start your own neighbourhood biodiversity and tree canopy projects.
Continue reading “Encore! Biodiversity Celebration Continues – October 6” →