St. Vincent de Paul semi-centennial project
By Robert Frank
www.thesuburban.com
Paolo Galati told The Suburban that the city plans to spend about $180,000 to expand Laval’s Nature Centre’s tree canopy this year by 3.3 hectares at the park’s north end.
The St. Vincent de Paul councilor, who lives within walking distance, rhapsodizes reflexively whenever he talks about the Nature Centre.
“It’s so beautiful,” he interjected in an interview. “Within minutes, you’re away from spirited away from urban bustle. Once you’re walking through the forested area there, even though you’re still in the city, you feel as though you have been transported somewhere else and engulfed by nature.”
“The whole project is to create a little more forest to mark Laval’s 50th anniversary,” Galati explained. “We intend to plant at least 10,000 new trees and shrubs where the park borders the highway exit ramps. Right now, only grass is growing there. The trees will serve as a natural air filter that will purify the carbon emissions there.”
Contractors will commence planting in April, he said. They will consist of mature varieties, rather than tiny saplings.
“The trees will range in diameter from 15-200 cm,” Galati added. The city has ordered an impressive variety of species, which include:
· Sugar maple
· Red maple
· Black maple
· Moose maple
· Bitternut hickory
· American basswood
· Red oak
· Bur oak
· Common hackberry
· Black cherry
· Blue beech
· Canadian hemlock
· White pine
· Canadian white pine
· White spruce
· White birch
· Yellow birch
· North American beech
· American hophornbeam
· Elderberry
· Chuckleberry
· Tamarack
· Balsam
