Wild Rose students will plant seeds of knowledge next spring with the help of a $4,000 grant from the city.
The St. Albert Environmental Advisory Committee approved some $9,500 in Green Community Grants on Nov. 28. Formerly known as the Environmental Initiatives Grant, these grants provide up to $5,000 to a school, non-profit, or group of citizens active in St. Albert to undertake a project that enhances the natural environment.
Just three grants were awarded this year — a record low for the grant surpassed only by 2020, where the grant was cancelled entirely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Committee member Coun. Shelley Biermanski said the committee got just four grant applications this year despite its outreach efforts, which included giving the grant its new name. This could be a case of no one having ideas for projects, but it’s always hard to tell.
“Next year, there might be a whole bunch of them,” she said.
Gardens galore
Wildrose Elementary received $4,000 for an outdoor gardening project involving Salisbury Greenhouse and the University of British Columbia.
Parent Mika Ennis said she got the idea for this project last winter when she saw all the empty greenhouse space at the Enjoy Centre. Thinking that the greenhouse could have students grow plants there, she reached out to Wildrose principal Sally Rudakoff and developed a plan.
Wildrose students already make great use of the two forests by the school to learn about nature, literacy, and numeracy, Rudakoff said. This upcoming six-session program will see students learn about native plants and Indigenous practices of land stewardship from UBC scholar Hughie Jones (a friend of Ennis and lead research scientist for the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation) and Elder Raymond Potts. They will also visit Salisbury Greenhouse in the Enjoy Centre, where staff will teach them how plants grow. Students will get to plant a strawberry plant to grow at home.
Ennis said she hoped this program would foster respect for the environment and Indigenous culture in students such as her son, who will participate in it.
“We want to inspire kids with a deeper understanding of where food comes from.”
The St. Albert-Sturgeon Métis Local 1904 received $4,000 to enhance its community garden.
The local started this garden by the Meadowview Dr. grain elevators a few years ago to build community and provide food for those in need, said Phyllis Kelly, head of the local’s community engagement committee.
“A lot of our elders working on the garden didn’t have the physical capacity to continue to do so, but they had a lot of knowledge of gardening they wanted to share,” she continued.
This grant will pay for tools, seeds, and water for the garden so volunteers won’t have to haul their own from home, Kelly said. It will specifically add saskatoons, chokecherries, and other native plants traditionally used by the Métis to the garden, reducing the need for people to drive long distances to find them.
Kelly said this enhanced garden should add more local food to the landscape and help St. Albert residents learn more about Métis culture. Elders she’s spoken with have said they’re excited to share their gardening expertise through this garden.
“In a Métis river lot, this [garden] would have been a natural occurrence,” Kelly said.
The Coal Mine Park Stewards were awarded $1,500 to continue their stewardship efforts in Coal Mine Park, which is northeast of the Ebony Way/Everitt Dr. roundabout.
Group co-ordinator Dale Ford said this money would help the group add more wildflowers and a portable solar-powered drip irrigation system to the park’s pollinator garden. Said system should use about 90 per cent less water than the watering cans the group currently uses and help plants in the garden establish stronger roots.
Ford said it is important to support pollinators to protect food security. Some 75 to 95 per cent of all flowering plants and one out of every three bites of human food depend on pollinating animals.
“If we don’t have pollinators, no one’s getting apples in their backyard,” she said.
Visit stalbert.ca/cosa/admin/grants/environmental for more on the Green Communities Grant.
