Wednesday, October 30, 2013 (Halifax, NS) – The Africville Museum was the site this morning of a celebration of new life and new beginnings for the environment in HRM.

Approximately 85 trees are taking root along the rail line at Africville Road. The initiative is one of several major tree planting projects implemented in 2013 under the HRM Urban Forest Master Plan (UFMP).

This particular beautification project, CN EcoConnexions From the Ground Up, saw dozens of trees planted along the railway tracks at Africville Park, and is being supported in part by a grant from Canadian National Railway in partnership with TreeCanada and Communities in Bloom.

It has been one year since Regional Council adopted the Urban Forest Master Plan, a multi-faceted program dedicated to dramatically increasing the number of trees planted annually in the urban core. By the time the last hole is dug this fall, approximately 1,800 new trees will have been planted this year across HRM.

The area in and around Africville Park is particularly important to the future of urban reforestation because just four per cent of that area has canopy cover – the total area that when you look down from above is covered by leaves.

One of the long-term goals in the Urban Forest Master Plan is to establish an average of 40 per cent canopy cover in HRM’s urban parks.

Source: HRM Release