The Port Stanley Village Association, in partnership with the Eco class at Kettle Creek Public School are honouring Port Stanley’s 200th Anniversary with the unveiling of a special project.
It’s been dubbed “200 Trees for 200 Years,” and will look to create a 1 to 2-acre, waterfront Carolinian parkland with naturalized trails on the berm for all to enjoy.
The seeds of 200 Trees were planted when the ECO class of 2017 did a greening project and envisioned the berm as a native forestland with naturalized pathways to benefit the community. The students reached out to the PSVA who also wanted to see the brownfield transformed and has been working with the municipality to do so ever since.
We had the chance to speak with Eco Class teacher Jayna Basson, who explains that their support runs through the entire school.
As Basson noted each year the current ECO class spend time working on the “berm project,” leaving a legacy for the next years’ class while learning important skills along the way. She adds that a lot of that learning comes thanks to the help of their community partners.
There’s still work to be done as roughly $200,000 will be necessary to complete the project, with the largest expense being clean soil.
They’ve now hit approximately 30% of their goal by way of donations, sponsorships and grants.
Basson shared that some of their successful grant applications were 100% student written.
In previous years, students have held art auctions, built bird boxes, flown kites and held various activities on the berm to raise funds.
Not only will the 200 Trees for 200 Years project help remove invasive plant species, but it aims to establish groves of native trees and shrubs that will support an authentic Carolinian area and wetland benefiting species-at-risk and beautifying the community.
You can learn more and stay up to date with the project- here.
Written by: K. Freeman
