Green Streets Canada Supports Huron Church Greening
Students from St. Francis School will be hiking to Huron Church Road on Wednesday, Nov.1 to dig and plant with Mayor Eddie Francis, Assumption High School students and other area volunteers.
At 9:30 am the students will meet with representatives from local government, CAW Windsor Regional Environmental Council, University of Windsor, Essex Region Conservation Authority, and the Green Corridor to assist in the continuing greening of the international bridge corridor linking Canada to the United States.
Grades 3–8 from St. Francis School will start their educational day with a walk to the tree planting site which is south of the Lebel Building on Huron Church Road. Rod Strickland, University of Windsor visual arts professor, will introduce the Green Corridor concept to the students with drawings of the green bridge and information on the regenerative green zone.
The morning ceremony illustrates the interdisciplinary collaboration of science, engineering, arts, educators, city planners, and residents, which is the foundation for the art and science environmental public project.
Mayor Eddie Francis will join students, sponsors and residents in thanking Green Streets Canada for financial support and participate in the planting.
To begin implementing the Huron Church Road Urban Design Plan, ten large Carolinian trees will be planted on the west side of Huron Church Road, within sight of the Ambassador Bridge.
Background Information
The Green Streets Canada program is the flagship program of the Tree Canada Foundation, a national organization dedicated to raising awareness among Canadians of the importance of Canada’s forests and promoting activities that sustain and preserve urban forests. Green Streets is the country’s only national urban-forest innovation program. It contributed $20,000 to the City of Windsor to improve the urban forest gateway to Canada, expand the community network and the seed collection program. For information on Green Streets Canada please visit www.treecanada.ca
Earth II School
St. Francis School has been recently named an Earth II School by SEEDS, a national non-profit organization encouraging environmental change in schools. As one of only three schools in Ontario that have completed 2,000 environmental projects, St. Francis exceeded the basic Earth School level by 1,000 environmental projects. Only 234 schools in Canada are listed as Earth Schools.
The SEEDS Foundation has been supporting environmental educational programs for 30 years encouraging responsible energy use and sustainability. For information on Earth Schools please visit www. seedsfoundation.ca/greenschools
The Green Corridor
The Green Corridor is a groundbreaking initiative for generating a “green” redevelopment of the Huron Church Road international bridge corridor linking Canada to the United States (www.greencorridor.ca).
Conceived by international artist Noel Harding in collaboration with University of Windsor visual arts professor Rod Strickland, the concept forms the basis of the Huron Church Road Urban Design Master Plan, which the City is using to improve Windsor’s Civic Image on this significant travel route.