Students and community partners plant a new orchard

November 8, 2010 (No. 53) –A fruit tree planting ceremony, led by the Vancouver Park Board with local schools and the Renfrew Collingwood Food Security Institute as partners, will take place in East Vancouver at:

Falaise Park
(@ Dieppe Drive and Dieppe Place)
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
2 pm – 3 pm

"Twenty-five fruit trees—apple, cherry, plum, pear and peach—will provide an opportunity for the development of community stewardship programs," says Vancouver Park Board Chair Aaron Jasper. "Students enrolled at Vancouver Christian School, Renfrew Elementary School and Windermere High School will help plant the trees, which will become an educational tool for ecology programming."

The project supports the City of Vancouver's Greenest City Action Team's recommendation to plant 150,000 trees by 2020, as well as the Park Board's commitment to sustainable practices in urban agriculture. Falaise Park was selected as a site for the orchard because it offers good sun exposure and air circulation. As well, the Renfrew Collingwood Food Security Institute offered to take stewardship of the fruit trees and use them as an educational tool.

A bug garden, designed by horticulture students from Kwantlen Polytechnic University to control pests and pollinate trees, will be installed in the orchard next spring.

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For more information contact Daria Wojnarski Communications Coordinator,
at (t) 604-257-8440 or (c) 604-561-6925.