Re-naturalizing Marlene Street Park

St. Vital

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/03/2024 (807 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Save Our Seine’s plans for a brand-new forest in St. Vital are moving ahead.

In the summer of 2024, SOS staff and volunteers will undertake an ambitious tree-planting and naturalization program in Marlene St Park

Last year, Save Our Seine led a modest, preliminary tree-planting event supported by Tree Canada as a prelude to this project. In collaboration with the City of Winnipeg, 34 trees were put down in three small nodes towards the rear of the park.

SOS has historically undertaken naturalization, tree planting and restoration work near this site in years past.

This year, the City of Winnipeg has approved phase two, which will see nearly 1,000 trees planted throughout the rear half of the park, creating a brand new riparian (riverbank) forest.

Marlene Street Park is a medium-sized greenspace located at the corner of Beliveau Road East and Marlene Street, near Lavallee School. It was once a City of St. Vital & landfill that was decommissioned and capped with sand and sod. Today the park boasts a gravel pathway around its perimeter and two park benches. It is not a formal sports or recreational space and the path is heavily windswept, located next door to the wide open space of the Manitoba Hydro transmission corridor.

The creation of this new forest will bring several practical, symbolic, and environmental benefits:

• Tree coverage will provide wind protection for the park pathways walkers and runners

• The return of a former landfill site to nature serves as a vivid act of healing & reconciliation with nature and our relationship to the river

• A new deepened forest area will provide critical habitat to wildlife and thicken the buffer between the ecosystem and the urban space

Save Our Seine will undertake a public awareness campaign in the surrounding community in before the planting. The date(s) are still to be determined, but those interested in participating should get in touch with SOS at info@saveourseine.com