We have planted and continue to maintain public plantings in two Niagara on the Lake public parks – the pollinator garden (planted in 2012) at the William Street Park and the pollinator garden (planted in 2016) and the riparian trees and shrubs (planted in 2020) at King & John. We thank all the volunteers who turned out to help with the weeding and mulching of these gardens in 2023.
King and John park
For the Earth Day cleanup in April 2023, volunteers did garbage collection within the naturalized area and pollinator garden at King & John streets and beside One Mile Creek along Parks Canada lands.
A corporate volunteer group of a dozen from Sun Opta from St. David’s took part in an afternoon in August 2023 to help weed the naturalized area of the many invasive plants such as grasses, Norway and Manitoba Maples, Ragweed, Canada Thistle, garlic mustard and more. A generous donation of $500 from Sun Opta to FOMC will be used to plant more trees and shrubs.
As required by the town, FOMC continues to maintain both pollinator gardens with numerous sessions of weeding throughout the spring and summer months.
FOMC volunteers help in the task. We continue to request more volunteers and thank the volunteers who consistently come out to help.
In August 2023, the Niagara Penninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) completed year-three monitoring of survival of the trees and shrubs planted in 2020. The NPCA reported: “Project in excellent condition. All plants, whether woody or flowering, are growing quickly and well. Over the three years since the project was begun, the area has transformed from mowed lawn to a 3m tall, lush growth of trees, shrubs, and riparian plants such as Joe Pye-weed. A pair of Red-tailed Hawks have taken up residence in the mature willows along the creek that the buffer surrounds. Survival assessment returned a survival rate of 99.3%.”
Upper Canada Heritage Trail
Klara Young-Chin of FOMC has been part of a group called Protect Our Pollinators (POP) and together with Niagara Beeway and many neigbourhood volunteers planted pollinator gardens as well as numerous trees and shrubs along the Upper Canada Heritage Trail between John and Charlotte Street in 2023.
All work was authorized by the Town and the Heritage Trail Committee. A generous donation was given to this ongoing project by the Goettler Family Foundation, through the town’s tree fund.
This work is in addition to FOMC being the first organization who initiated the naturalization of the Upper Canada Heritage trail back in 2010 by planting 85 native trees, such as Oaks, Maples, Black Cherry, Tulip and Eastern Cedar trees.
List of plants planted in 2023:
- Blazing Star (Liatris spicata)
- Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
- Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum)
- Blue Aster (Symphyotrichum puniceum)
- Purple Cone Flower (Echinacea purpurea)
- Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
- Bee Balm (Monarda Didyma)
- Green Headed Cone Flower (Rudbeckia Laciniata)
- Akebono Cherry x 4 (non native but planted for early nectar production for pollinators)
- Basswood x1 (Tilia americana)
- Eastern Redbud x4 (Cercis canadensis)
- Bellerina, single stalk Serviceberry (Amelanchier CDN) x4
- Downy, multi stemmed Serviceberry ( Amelanchier CDN) x 4
- Northern Spice Bush x 3 (Lindera benzoin)
- Staghorn Sumac x 10 (Rhus typhina)
Creek along King Street
We continue to engage with Town staff about the mowing and cleaning of the creek along John Street. The culvert at Charlotte St. was replaced in spring 2024.