New planting sites create venues for advanced learning and increased biodiversity on campus.
This semester, Concordia worked with a local non-profit to plant over 1000 new trees and shrubs on the Loyola campus.
Jackie Martin, the lead for the tree planting project, said she hopes this project will create new learning opportunities for Concordia University students.
“I want these to be pedagogical spaces,” said Martin. “I want people to come out and learn from them.”
As Concordia’s Urban Agriculture and Biodiversity Coordinator, Martin has spent the last few months collaborating on this project with Concordia and the non-profit organization Soverdi. Earlier in the year, Soverdi reached out to Concordia, offering to provide over $500,000 of materials and labour to plant trees and shrubs across campus.
“Soverdi paid for everything; it didn’t cost us a cent,” said Martin.
Ecology experts at Concordia and Soverdi were consulted to develop a planting and monitoring plan that aligns with the Campus Master Plan.
Planting has taken place in four zones across campus, including one area devoted to research. The north zone is situated by the Jesuit Residence (JR), the south zone covers the area behind the athletic complex, the ornamental zone faces the athletic complex, and the research zone is situated behind the Vanier Library.
Carly Ziter and Emma Despland, professors in Concordia’s biology department, said they will be monitoring the research zone to help answer some of Soverdi’s research questions.
Despland specializes in plant-insect interactions and will focus on monitoring insect biodiversity in the research zone. Ziter, an urban ecologist, will monitor the health of the environments more broadly.
Ziter said there is growing interest in using urban “mini-forests” to increase biodiversity and promote human health. Still, she added, many questions remain about the effectiveness of these sites and how to design them successfully.
“Having a research plot on campus provides an opportunity to add another data point to studies that are asking these questions,” said Ziter. “It also provides a teaching tool for students to be able to understand how these types of systems can be studied and monitored.”
Narcisse Hassan, a second-year ecology student, hopes these sites will give her more opportunities to witness biodiversity firsthand.
“If you plant more than 1000 trees, you’re going to get so many bugs and birds, and that’s really exciting, especially because we’re in an urban environment,” said Hassan.
Hassan shared that ecology students like herself would previously have needed to drive nearly an hour from campus to Mont-Saint-Hilaire to get hands-on experience. Now, she will be able to practice field work right on campus.
“Often in sciences, we focus on what happens in class and what happens in the book, but the real learning is the application of knowledge, and that happens outside the classroom,” said Hassan.
Beyond the research and educational benefits, Martin said that increasing tree canopy cover — coverage provided by trees and other plants — and promoting biodiversity are two of the primary goals for the project.
Canopy cover is especially relevant for regulating the temperature of the campus. The planting zones by the JR parking lot was chosen specifically to help reduce the heat island effect of the concrete.
Going forward, Martin said that she hopes to integrate other ecological projects into the planting zones.
“There’s so many great benefits to this project,” said Martin. “Keeping the momentum up and keeping people engaged and growing the team will be the key to success.”
