What used to be a back yard lawn, is soon to return to rainforest, thanks to some help from the Lower Mainland Green Team and several other helpers and volunteers.
And what better day to do it than this Sunday, the first National Tree Day in Canada.
Thanks to a $5,000 contribution from Canon, volunteers will be at the east end of 110th Avenue, off 240th Street, planting about 500 cedars, spruces, big leaf maples and salmonberry shrubs next to Kanaka Creek. They’ll be planting them on the site of a former home that was recently bought by Metro Vancouver parks and added into the boundaries of Kanaka Creek Regional Park.
“We’re going to put it back to rainforest to protect Kanaka Creek,” explained Janis Jarvis of Metro Vancouver parks.
Natural forest cover will stabilize the soil around the stream and provide shade to maintain water temperatures.
Volunteers from Kanaka Education and Environmental Partnership Society, parks staff, Canon employees and members of the Lower Mainland Green Team will be doing the labour, starting at 10 a.m. and going to 3 p.m.
“The idea is to bring it back into its natural state,” said Ross Davies of KEEPS.
Pacific Parklands Foundation is organizing the event.
Tree Canada, a non-profit group, established National Tree Day.
Tree Canada provides education, technical assistance, resources and financial support through working partnerships to encourage Canadians to plant and care for trees in rural and urban areas.
Thirty different groups across the country will be doing the same thing, thanks to Canon’s Take Root program.
The company will dish out $5,000 to 30 groups across Canada for the next three years, resulting in 7,500 trees planted in urban areas.
Davies said the dry summer has dropped Kanaka Creek to its lowest level in years. “I can’t believe there isn’t a campfire ban on right now.”
KEEPS is also marking Rivers Day, next Sunday, Sept. 30 with a family event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Riverfront in Kanaka Creek Regional Park, on Lougheed Highway at the east end of Haney Bypass.
Guided canoe tours of lower Kanaka will take place.
• For more information, call 604-970-8404.