I spent my morning planting trees along Mosquito Creek off of Spratt Road in the south of Ottawa with three other volunteers and the two staff people of the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority’s City Stream Watch Program. Between the 6 of us we managed to plant 200 trees and shrubs including bur oak, red osier dogwood, highbush cranberry and spruce. The plantings were done in an area that had been planted last year and those volunteers who had come out last year were excited to see that many of the saplings they had planted had survived the winter and were doing well.
The City Stream Watch program is in its fifth year. The goals of the program are to obtain and manage information on the health of city streams. To this end volunteers conduct macro stream assessments on various streams within the City of Ottawa under the supervision of City Stream Watch staff persons. The program also organizes tree plantings to stabilize stream banks as well as clean-up days. There are currently well over 100 volunteers with the program.
The next City Stream Watch Volunteer Training Workshop will be held on May 26 from 9 a.m. to noon in the small park at the mouth of Sawmill Creek about 100 m east of Bank St Bridge and westbound Riverside Dr. Please contact Grant Nichol if you plan to attend. You can also contact Grant Nichol if you are interested in volunteering with the program but cannot attend the workshop and other arrangements for training can be made.
Grant Nichol, City Stream Watch Coordinator, (613) 580-2424 ext. 22886
grant.nichol@ottawa.ca
Green Living Ottawa 