Natasha's suggestions

The seventh and last of the invited speakers at my Environment Action meetings since we started this series last autumn was Natasha Jovanovic of Ecology Ottawa, whose Living City Program she manages. I hosted this meeting on May 10th.

Natasha told us that Ecology Ottawa is proposing nature-based solutions to the problems caused by climate change, this approach being largely based on traditional, indigenous knowledge. Thinking of the worldwide decline of biodiversity keeps her awake at night, she confessed, and in the national capital region alone, she's aware of some 60 species at risk of extinction. Cities play a special role in the conservation of ecosystems, trees and waterways being particularly vital to this mission. Ottawa's official Urban Forest Management Plan was initiated in 2016 and ought to be updated. 

In managing ecosystems, the planning for our future needs to integrate nature-based approaches. We need a "greener" infrastructure and a rewilding of the urban environment, because "diversity is life". Our food supply depends on the survival of pollinators.

Rewilding Ottawa, she hastened to add, didn't have to mean letting our back yards and boulevards become overgrown. There are ways by which we can find a balance: we shouldn't rake our lawns, for example and we should let the leaf-litter stay on our flowerbeds in early spring, so that small creatures are not disturbed. A water feature in our gardens can be as simple as a flat receptacle with stones in it, filled with water, for animals and birds to drink from. (I have one like that!) Manicured lawns should be transformed into eco-friendly pollinator gardens. She gave us tips on what to plant and how to design such a garden. In those neighbourhoods and community gardens where people are doing the right thing, passers-by can read the signage and pick up handouts about this. Areas of land to be left wild, like the area within Champlain Park (see this report published last year), where Chris and I went exploring a few weeks ago, will only need mowing once every three years.

We suffer from a lack of resources, but more naturalization of the flora in city parks must become a priority; the City's present targets cannot be reached otherwise. At our meeting, people asked about invasive plants, and Natasha recommended they contact the Fletcher Wildlife Garden for tips on getting rid of them.

The mandate of Ecology Ottawa is to make this city the Green Capital of Canada by whatever means of persuasion it takes. There must be more education, better protection of green spaces. It's not feasible to work with school during the lock-downs, though. Ecology Ottawa has launched some ongoing campaigns. Their initial sale of native plants was so successful that they sold out, this spring, but a few more species are being offered soon. Check the website.

How else may we champion biodiversity in and around our city? By installing the iNaturalist app on our smartphones we can take part in a citizen science "Bioblitz", helping to monitor and catalogue the wild species in our midst. Doing this requires some thought and preparation. For example, any time we plan to visit Petrie Island, we should first research what we could do there.

Each year, Ecology Ottawa organises a tree giveaway, and this year's is the biggest yet, with 15,000 saplings available. Coniferous trees will be distributed first, starting in June, and fruit shrubs later in the summer. We should get in touch with our Community Associations to organise such events in our respective neighbourhoods.