Junior Ecoleaders plant a pin oak
Imagine neighbours coming together to help turn former industrial land into a place for nature. Imagine a place where birds and butterflies can thrive and children can experience nature right in their own neighbourhood. Through the HLT program’s Land’s Inlet Nature Project this vision is becoming a reality!
Thanks to funding from the Hamilton Community Foundation and a Walmart/Evergreen Green Grant; support from Southern Ontario Railway, which leases and manages the land; and, the help of dozens of local residents and volunteers the vision is well on its way to becoming a reality and a small area in Hamilton’s North End neighbourhood is being transformed.
Thanks to the generosity of the Shell Fuelling Change fund, Sobey’s/Earth Day Canada Community Environment Fund, the Ed Smee Fund of the Conserver Society, the City of Hamilton and almost 100 dedicated volunteers, we were able to greatly expand the planting site in the spring of 2012.
The project site straddles Simcoe Street East, running along the north-west side of the railway line between Wellington Street and Ferguson Street.
- Land’s Inlet before planting, Photo Al Ernest
Through the leadership of the HLT program, community volunteers and youth groups have naturalized and beautified this site by:
- Cleaning up tonnes of garbage and recyclables from the area.
- Planting over 130 native trees and shrubs and more than 3,750 native wildflowers and prairie plants.
- Mulching and watering plantings and removing invasive species.
Hundreds of local children are learning about nature in their neighbourhood while helping with these efforts.
Land’s Inlet after planting, Photo Al Ernest
Key partners in the youth and community programs include North Hamilton Community Health Centre, Bennetto School, North End Neighbours, and First Unitarian Church.
