Nature at McMaster's final tree planting shows that sometimes, all it takes is one tree to start restoring a forest
By: Dawn McKee, Arts and Culture Contributor
As the crisp air of late autumn signalled the approach of winter, Nature at McMaster wrapped up its tree-planting season with a final tree planting event at 10:00 a.m. on Nov. 24, 2024. The trees planted will help restore the vegetation in the McMaster Forest Nature Preserve, a 115-acre plot off of Wilson St E.
This event, marked by enthusiasm and a shared commitment to conservation, brought together 17 volunteers who planted nearly 50 native trees and shrubs. These included species like gooseberry and hackberry, which play a crucial role in supporting local wildlife.
Sophia Scordino, a restoration and stewardship intern for Nature at McMaster, explained that parts of McMaster Forest had previously been overrun with invasive species like European buckthorn. These invasive plants choke out native species and provide little value to the local ecosystem. By removing them and planting native trees, Nature at McMaster aims to restore the area to its natural state, ensuring it becomes a thriving habitat for native mammals, birds and reptiles.
Scordino emphasized the importance of native species. "They provide food, shelter and other ecosystem services that invasive species simply can’t offer to local wildlife," said Scordino. This restoration effort not only benefits the environment but also contributes to broader ecological health in Hamilton.
This season, Nature at McMaster faced the daunting task of planting more than 100 trees and shrubs across McMaster Forest and the lower campus. The final event came later in the year than planned, but with the help of dedicated volunteers, the team successfully planted all the trees before the frost set in. "Luckily, the weather held out for us," said Scordino.
Renee Twyford, another restoration and stewardship intern, highlighted that Nature at McMaster is more than just tree planting. As part of McMaster's outdoor recreation group, their mission includes education, restoration and outreach. "We want to empower people to understand and protect the natural world around them," said Twyford. "It’s about more than just being outside—it’s about knowing what you’re seeing and how to help it thrive."
We want to empower people to understand and protect the natural world around them. It’s about more than just being outside—it’s about knowing what you’re seeing and how to help it thrive.
Renee Twyford, restoration and stewardship intern
Nature at McMaster
Through events like interactive hikes and workshops, they engage students and community members, teaching them about native species and their role in local ecology. Social media efforts, including an active Instagram presence, further extend their reach and impact.
Nature at McMaster has ambitious goals, such as expanding eco-corridors around campus to support migratory birds and turtles and establishing an Indigenous teaching and gathering garden near Lot P. These projects aim to undo ecological harm caused by development, such as the paving of parking lots, and create spaces where wildlife can flourish.
One of the organization’s most significant achievements has been the transformation of McMaster Forest, which was once farmland overtaken by invasive species. Scordino explained that it features a rare tallgrass prairie ecosystem, home to species like eastern bluebirds and woodcocks. "Less than 1 per cent of tallgrass prairie remains in Canada, so preserving and restoring it here is incredibly valuable," said Scordino.
Recently, the organization launched a formal volunteering program, which has already attracted over 100 participants. Through this initiative, they hope to build a community of nature enthusiasts who are empowered to lead their own conservation efforts, whether it’s organizing litter cleanups, conducting wildlife surveys, or running interpretive hikes.
For Twyford, making nature accessible and approachable is key. "A lot of people feel overwhelmed by how much there is to learn about nature, but even small actions, like planting a single tree, can have a huge impact," said Twyford.
A lot of people feel overwhelmed by how much there is to learn about nature, but even small actions, like planting a single tree, can have a huge impact.
Renee Twyford, Restoration and Stewardship Intern
Nature at McMaster
Nature at McMaster’s work exemplifies how small, community-driven efforts can lead to significant environmental change. As Scordino put it, "We’ve already made a difference, transforming McMaster Forest and areas near Lot M. The impact is real, and it’s just the beginning."
When asked for advice for those considering getting involved, both Scordino and Twyford were emphatic, encouraging students to "just do it." Whether through Nature at McMaster or other local environmental groups, they encourage everyone to take action, learn about native ecology and get involved to make a difference. "[It] doesn't matter who you are, where you come from," said Scordino.
"I just think that everyone should get out here, everyone should go outside, go touch some grass," said Twyford. If you are interested in volunteering with Nature at McMaster or attending one of their events, you can visit their website or Instagram page.
A week of sustainability focused events from the MSU
Last week, the McMaster Students Union held an online event series to encourage students to pay more attention to and recognize sustainability issues. From Oct. 25 to 30, McMaster Earth Week was a week of various sustainability-themed activities.
This event was hosted by the MSU, but involved other campus and community organizations such as Nature at McMaster, the Student Sustainability Ambassadors Program, McMaster Veggie Club, McMaster Academic Sustainability Programs Office and Trees for Hamilton.
Starting off the week, McMaster Veggie Club ran a meatless Monday event on their Instagram page. The club said meatless Monday is an event series that they will be hosting once a month. For the event, a representative from McMaster Veggie Club shared a meatless recipe via their Instagram story. This week, the recipe was a meatless chilli.
On Tuesday, the MSU hosted a virtual tree planting event. This event was in collaboration with the SUSTAIN 3S03 Implementing Sustainable Change course’s solitary bees and tree planting student groups, as well as Facility Services.
As an experiential learning course, SUSTAIN 3S03 asked community members to pitch project ideas on the first night of class. The projects that they eventually work on are their focus for the rest of the semester.
Callum Hales and Crystal Zhang are students of the Solitary Bees and Tree Planting student project groups respectively. Both Hales and Zhang’s groups collaborated on this event to increase the biodiversity of plant species and the number of solitary bees on campus.
Unlike honey bees or bumble bees, solitary bees are not aggressive and they do not produce honey. However, they are excellent pollinators. Hales and Zhang’s student group works to educate the McMaster and Hamilton community about solitary bees as well as inspire initiatives such as this one.
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Following the initiation of the Solitary Bees Project in 2019, 50 bee boxes are now posted around the university campus. With this event, native plant species are planted around the posts and Hales and Zhang expressed that the plants can help to support the bees.
Last year, 80 trees were planted on McMaster Sustainability Day in October. This year, a total of 100 trees were planted. In addition to the student groups, the tree planting was facilitated by Trees for Hamilton, Nature at McMaster, and Facility Services.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, the event could no longer encourage volunteers from the community to participate. Hence, the Grounds Department of Facility Services at McMaster handled the tree planting, while Abbie Little, community relations coordinator of the Academic Sustainability Programs Office, overlooked the event.
Other events included a nature bingo game on Wednesday, an eating seasonally and locally talk on Thursday morning, a sustainable art night on Thursday night and an autumn earth hour on Friday.
The nature bingo event asked participants to seek out specific items outdoors and complete a bingo card to be entered within a draw at the end of the week.
Thursday morning, in collaboration with McMaster Hospitality Services, Wellness and Sustainability Manager and Registered Dietitian, Liana Bontempo, shared a video about reasons why people should buy food locally.
Bontempo noted that buying local foods can mean great variety, cheaper and fresher produce as well as the ability to support local farmers.
Although not the first sustainability focussed initiative that McMaster has held, this is the first time the MSU is holding Earth Week. In planning for this event, Little said that the team considered how students are dealing with the pandemic.
“We know that 2020 has been a strange year and that it could be a tough time for students with midterms and adjusting to online school, so we wanted to encourage students to get outside, think about the food they eat, the nutrients they get, relax with some fun crafts and switch off their power, lights and laptop to conserve energy and unwind,” Little explained.
“We know that 2020 has been a strange year and that it could be a tough time for students with midterms and adjusting to online school, so we wanted to encourage students to get outside, think about the food they eat, the nutrients they get, relax with some fun crafts and switch off their power, lights and laptop to conserve energy and unwind,” Little explained.
Correction: Dec. 1, 2020
A previous version of this article wrote that SUSTAIN 3S03 course asked "students" to pitch project ideas, rather than "community members". This has now been fixed.
Correction: Nov. 23, 2020
A previous version of this article misstated the names of two participants. The article has now been corrected and The Silhouette regrets the error.
Forget about your school stress and live your fairytale at Royal Botanical Gardens
By: Belinda Tam, Contributor
Wonderful aromas, flowers, trees and shows. Doesn’t that sound amazing? With the stress of tests, midterms and assignments, sometimes it’s hard to get away from it all. The Royal Botanical Gardens (680 Plains Rd. West) is one of those places that will make you feel like you’ve walked into a fairy tale. With midterms in full swing, the RBG can be a great way to take time for yourself and relax without having to leave the city.
As the largest botanical gardens in Canada, a national historic site and a registered charitable organization for over 80 years, the RBG is an ecological gem. It was built and founded by Thomas Baker McQuesten, a Liberal member of provincial parliament for the area, who created what would become a regional botanical tourism site and environmental agency.
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In 1941, McQuesten was granted a provincial mandate for four areas of development: conservation, education, horticulture and science. Nearly 80 years later, the RBG has established an international reputation as a living laboratory for science, a leader in sustainable gardening and a key player in connecting Hamiltonians to nature. Within its 60 documented collections and 40,000 plants displayed in four major areas, it is a shining attraction just outside the city.
The RBG is comprised of four parks: Hendrie Park, Rock Garden, Laking Garden and the Arboretum.
Hendrie Park is the largest garden, known for its various plants and trees arranged in a unique design. It holds 20 different areas including the Rose Garden, Medicinal Garden and a Scented Garden. Each area boasts has a peak season that ranges depending on the time of year, allowing areas such as Hendrie Park to always give visitors a new experience.
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The Rose Garden has been newly renovated and is an extraordinary display of roses across two acres of land. Many of the roses are joined by companion plants that help to protect the roses within their vicinity.
The Medicinal Garden is unique because each bed in this garden is focused on a particular part of the human body. The beds are organized by the diseases they treat, but also features plants from various cultures, allowing one to compare ancient traditional herbs to modern medicine.
The Scented Garden features the traditional conception of a garden: stone walkways, a beautiful central fountain and the fragrance of flowers pollinating the air. You are encouraged to walk through the garden, smell the annuals and consider why we have an emotional attachment to plants. Why do we place them in vases to adorn our tables? Why do we plant them outside of our houses?
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When you go into different areas of Hendrie Park, it feels like you’re walking from one section of a storybook to the next, making it a magical experience.
Then there’s the Rock Garden. It is RBG’s newest garden, built to celebrate the start of a new era with a modern twist. The founder of Royal Botanical Gardens, Thomas Baker McQuesten, took abandoned gravel and used it to form what is now known as the Rock Garden. Within the garden, there are ponds, a waterfall and a year-round perennial display. The new garden also showcases a multi-use visitor center that houses a restaurant, conference centre and a look-out deck with a view of the garden’s lower-bowl.
The next area of the grounds is the Laking Garden. This is the second-oldest garden at the RBG and is home to perennial collections. Features of the garden include its iris, peony, and clematis collections, typically in full bloom during the summer months.
The last section of the garden is the Arboretum. It looks like something that came out of a landscape painting, with a vast arrangement of trees and plants. This area is especially beautiful in the spring when branches start to bud, but also in the fall when the foliage starts to assume beautiful reds, yellows and oranges. There are plants from all over the world here.
As large as the RBG is, they hold many events during the year.
The RBG has two ticketed events in the pipeline. “RBG After Dark: Boos, Brews & BBQ” is a Halloween costume party that will be held with creatures from the past. Enjoy the activities, music, locally crafted brews and delicious BBQ on Oct. 17 from 7-10 p.m. in the Rock Garden. Come out in your Halloween costume and take in the amazing autumn nightscape of the Boo-tanical Gardens!
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“The Great Pumpkin Trail” is taking over Hendrie Park’s South Bridle Trail lining each side of the path with hundreds of jack-o-lanterns. Enjoy the live entertainment, face painting and pumpkin-themed activities and games while taking in the autumn weather before All Hallow’s Eve. The event will take place on Oct. 24 and 25 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Both of these events are a fabulous way to meet up with friends, grab a bite, enjoy the scenery and get in the mood for Halloween!
As students, we have a lot of stress on our shoulders. We need to be able to take care of ourselves throughout our journey. The RBG can offer an escape from the stresses of campus, while still keeping you within the city’s limits. Stepping into one of its many acres will transport you to your favourite fairy tale and hopefully allow you to feel rejuvenated as we enter the second half of the semester.
By: Elizabeth Ivanecky
Hamilton Conservation Authority staff have noted that the Dundas and Ancaster regions in Hamilton are expected to experience a high degree of defoliation this summer due to the high levels of the European gypsy moth populations.
Noticeable defoliation will occur in the Dundas Valley Conservation Area east of the Hermitage Parking lot and south of the Hydro cut where HCA staff recorded 275 to 4580 egg masses of the gypsy moth. Comparable to the last spike in the gypsy moth population in 2008, when staff recorded 2600 to 10 000 egg masses.
The DVCA south of Little John Road is expected to bear the brunt of the defoliation with a count of approximately 7150 egg masses of the gypsy moth. In 2008, staff recorded 26 000 to 40 000 egg masses.
Other areas such as Spencer Gorge, Iroquoia Heights and other locations in the DVCA have been monitored for 25 to 600 egg masses per HA comparing to 500 to 15,000 that staff counted in 2008.
Originally introduced into the United States in 1869 as an attempt to begin a silk industry, the gypsy moth spread into Canada in Quebec in 1924 and gradually expanded into Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and British Columbia. It is considered the most significant tree defoliator in North America.
Gypsy moth larvae chew holes in or consume leaves thereby hindering a tree’s ability to produce new crop of leaves over the summer.
In their caterpillar stage, gypsy moths produce a large amount of caterpillar frass, or fecal matter, which becomes a bother to clean up on property owners’ driveways, patios, picnic tables and homes.
Lesley McDonell, a terrestrial ecologist for the HCA, prepared an update of the Gypsy Moth surveys in the Dundas and Ancaster regions to the Conservation Authority Board alongside Mike Stone, a member of the Canadian Institute of Planners and registered professional planner, which included proposed solutions to the defoliation issue.
HCA staff veer away from an aerial spray of the biological insecticide Btk since it kills more organisms than simply the gypsy moths. In 2008, the Dundas and Ancaster tree regions experienced a much more severe level of defoliation due to the Gypsy moth as compared to this year and were treated with an aerial spray.
“Gypsy moths develop in the same way a lot of our moths and butterfly species do, [with] the same sets of stages at the same time, so Btk kills every moth and butterfly at the same stage of development as the gypsy moths,” said McDonell
Instead, McDonell and staff advocate for an organic solution rather than a chemical one. She said gypsy moth populations can be kept in check with the fungus Entomophaga maimaiga and Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus among other things.
The Entomophaga maimaiga fungus is most successful in wet weather during the spring showing a stark decline in gypsy moth caterpillars than in drier springs. Caterpillars killed by this fungus appear withered and hang in a vertical position.
A strain of NPV that enters a gypsy moth produces and reproduces in the nucleus of cells causing the host to become visibly swollen with fluid of the virus — thereby contributing to its decay.
Human mediation is also possible by scraping egg masses and placing sticky bands around infected tree trunks to catch and kill the moths in their caterpillar life stage.
HCA staff have already employed sticky tape to catch hatching gypsy moths before they begin to defoliate trees and began scraping trees for egg masses.
Staff also considered the use of pheromone traps which lure adult male gypsy moths in a lethal trap through the guise of sex pheromones.
The moderately high level of gypsy moth populations in the Dundas and Ancaster regions especially concerns HCA staff about tree health and mortality since the Fall Canker worm defoliation that occurred last spring, the summer drought which followed and the possibility of a second defoliation looming this summer. Staff remark that this will further stress the trees within these regions’ forests.
“The trees are stressed, so we will be watching some of these severe areas closely to see how they react and then to see how the gypsy moth population levels change over time,” McDonell claims.
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Krista Kruja couldn’t be happier doing what she’s doing.
Having just finished her second year at McMaster, Krista is now focused on continuing the work that began in earnest last summer, when student Jonathan Valencia and volunteer coordinator Randy Kay first started the Hamilton Street Tree Project.
One of the main summer initiatives of McMaster’s Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG), the project’s primary objective is to inform local neighbourhoods about the Street Tree Program that has been funded by the city since 2004.
“The way that the city is doing this is by offering free trees on the city line – most people’s front lawn, or at least a portion of it, belong to the city,” Krista explained. “Anywhere that’s city property, [residents] are allowed to request a tree, and so the city will plant it, and it’s the city’s job to maintain it.”
As the project coordinator, Krista’s role has been to oversee efforts in going door-to-door and canvassing specific neighbourhoods in order to inform the public. Launched in part due to a 2011 Clean Air Hamilton study, OPIRG has focused on lower-income neighbourhoods that were measured to have the poorest air quality in the city.
Hamilton’s Keith neighbourhood, the focus of last summer’s pilot project, received an average of three tree requests per year prior to OPIRG’s efforts. After last year’s canvassing and door-to-door efforts, 65 new trees were planted.
This year, the focus has been on the Crown Point neighbourhood, which is located between Gage and Kenilworth. According to Krista, they’ve received nearly 70 requests for new trees so far, and are hoping to reach 80 by the end.
By expanding the urban canopy, OPIRG hopes to have a real effect on the air quality of these areas. But that’s not all they’re interested in doing with the program, Krista explained.
“Another sub goal [for the project] is community building – last year, it was just one student who went door-to-door and got lots of tree requests. This year we’ve been trying to get volunteers from McMaster, as well as the Crown Point community and Hamilton in general.”
Krista says that this summer, they’ve had more than 10 volunteers, some of whom aren’t even affiliated with OPIRG.
“For example… one of the co-presidents of Engineers Without Borders came out to volunteer, and she got in touch with the community developer for the Crown Point neighbourhood. She wants to work [with the developer] for some events in the school year,” Krista said with an enthusiastic smile. “It’s a nice partnership.”
Although it will be years before the trees have any noticeable effect on the air quality in these neighbourhoods, Krista’s enthusiasm for the project couldn’t be dampened.
“Sure, you don’t necessarily see the fruits of your labour in that air quality probably hasn’t changed much in the Keith neighbourhood from last year to this year, but you see the little trees, and you know that they’re going to get bigger, and in a couple of decades, it’s something you’ll definitely be able to see,” she said.
“Walking through that neighbourhood, maybe 20 or 30 years from now, I’ll be like: Oh, look at that! That’s something I was involved with,” she laughed.
Krista continued, “I think one of the greatest things about it is that it’s just such a big effort on behalf of everyone: McMaster’s done a lot, OPIRG’s done a lot, and Environment Hamilton has been really involved… Without everybody trying to help improve the neighbourhood, it wouldn’t have been possible, so I think it’s really exciting.”
With the project winding down in the first week of July, Krista expressed that she’s very interested in continuing the project during the school year.
“We were thinking of ways we can expand the Street Tree Project so it’s not just for the summer,” she said. “While I’m only working on it for nine weeks, I’m really enjoying it and I think it’s a really valuable thing.”
“I’d love to volunteer and work on it during the school year as well… to whatever capacity I can.”
