Prairie Habitat Garden Renovation
Janet McVittie and Shannon Dyck were awarded an Environmental Community Action Grant for their proposal to renovate the Prairie Habitat Garden.
Janet McVittie and Shannon Dyck (a recently completed Masters student, supervised by Marcia McKenzie) were awarded one of 20 North American Partnership for Environmental Community Action grants (out of 500 applications from throughout Canada, US, and Mexico) for their community action proposal. The grant, of approximately $US 50,000 is to renovate the Prairie Habitat Garden to focus on Indigenous peoples, native plants, and children’s active play space. The sponsoring agency is the Commission for Environmental Cooperation.
The first planning session was a world café event with First Nations and Métis, early learning, and native plant people involved to determine the kinds of features to have in the garden. The second workshop will be on Saturday, May 28, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will involve learning how First Nations’ peoples traditionally managed the grass lands, which plant species in the garden are invasive and which are native, and then actually getting to work removing as many invasive species as possible. All are invited to attend this second workshop.
The bulk of the funds are for remoulding the garden space, but some will be spent on inviting early learners to use the space, as well as educational signage for visitors, and the making of a movie to show the process and the results. Please visit the garden at your leisure. You might encounter our summer Prairie Habitat Garden coordinator there, Sofia Quijada, who is a teacher candidate from the Early Learning Cohort. Sofia is working for the garden and researching children’s language about nature for the summer.
The first planning session was a world café event with First Nations and Métis, early learning, and native plant people involved to determine the kinds of features to have in the garden. The second workshop will be on Saturday, May 28, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will involve learning how First Nations’ peoples traditionally managed the grass lands, which plant species in the garden are invasive and which are native, and then actually getting to work removing as many invasive species as possible. All are invited to attend this second workshop.
The bulk of the funds are for remoulding the garden space, but some will be spent on inviting early learners to use the space, as well as educational signage for visitors, and the making of a movie to show the process and the results. Please visit the garden at your leisure. You might encounter our summer Prairie Habitat Garden coordinator there, Sofia Quijada, who is a teacher candidate from the Early Learning Cohort. Sofia is working for the garden and researching children’s language about nature for the summer.