ACTIONS

The Sustainability Student Ambassadors of Langara College have identified a 100m² grassy area at their Vancouver campus to rewild! The students and staff will work to convert this area into productive habitat with diverse native plants, welcoming pollinators and wildlife to this urban campus. Students will track the species the garden attracts, and with help from Facilities will continue to maintain and sustain this new habitat for future wildlife and students to come.

Working closely with the Office of Sustainability, student Samantha Ceci and her team will be restoring a monoculture woodland area on campus into a mixed forest to support a diversity of pollinator species. Downhill from mature red oak trees, Samantha’s team will conduct successional planting to mimic the natural progression of vegetation in a terrestrial ecosystem over time.

Urban campuses play a vital role in supporting healthy habitats, a role Centennial College takes seriously. Students and staff together will launch a campus bee sanctuary, supported by existing pollinator gardens that will continue to welcome native bees to campus.

Using a tissue culture technique, student Dennis Zhu will propagate a native plant species in-vitro. Each native plant that is propagated will be housed in a self-sustaining glass habitat and distributed to local primary schools. Used as an educational tool for young students, this project along with the educational resources Dennis’ team will develop, will help advance awareness on the importance of native plants.

Seneca College continues to enhance their landscape revitalization plan by adding more and more green spaces to their list of areas to restore back to native habitat for pollinators. This new native plant garden will be located next to existing native bee apiaries, increasing the biodiversity of plants and wildlife on campus, including a growing bee population at Seneca College.

Seneca College continues to enhance their landscape revitalization plan by adding more and more green spaces to their list of areas to restore back to native habitat for pollinators. This new native plant garden will be located next to existing native bee apiaries, increasing the biodiversity of plants and wildlife on campus, including a growing bee population at Seneca College.

The Faculty of Environment Ecology Lab is creating unique student and staff opportunities to roll-up their sleeves for nature while learning and working virtually. Transitioning from hands-on in-person workshops to a hands-on on-line experience, students and staff will be able to join a virtual “container garden for wildlife” build-along, creating a habitat for pollinators no matter where they are working or learning from this year.

Working closely with campus staff, the student Sustainability Club is reimagining an unused space on their urban Ottawa campus and putting their ideas into action. Restoring the green space into habitat for wildlife, a native plant garden will be installed welcoming pollinators, and new habitat through nesting boxes will be created for wood ducks and local bats.

All semester long, students enrolled in the Ecology of Urban Environments class have been learning about the importance of urban native plant ecosystems. Using their new knowledge, each student designed and submitted a plan to faculty for a new native plant campus garden. One design was selected by professors, and together the whole class will put theory into action to increase the presence of native plants on campus using one of the student designs.