Sustainable Living Ottawa East
Since 2007, Sustainable Living Ottawa East (SLOE) has been part of a low-key but important renaissance in Old Ottawa East. SLOE helps plan, develop, network and fundraise for projects that support greater community sustainability. Many projects have been initiated and/or supported by SLOE members, including: the Main Farmers’ Market, the Ottawa East Community Garden, the Lees Community Garden, the Children’s Garden at Robert Legget Park, the Rideau River Nature Trail, the Midtown Footbridge, and the Neighbour-to-Neighbour electricity efficiency audit project. SLOE is currently working with researchers, the developer and other stakeholders to envision and plan for sustainability in the development of the Oblate lands. And behind these existing initiatives is a world of other possibilities for increased local sustainability. This is good work. There is satisfaction and joy in it. Please join us in fueling the momentum. Contact Jayson MacLean, the SLOE chair, at sloe@ottawaeast.ca.
Brantwood Park Tree Walk — Take a guided stroll through Brantwood Park’s lovely landscape. This tree walk was put together by SLOE volunteers as part of the 2020 Main Event. It features commentary on 17 trees along the Rideau River Nature Trail, a few of the over 40 different species within the park. You can access the walk by clicking here.
Trees of Echo Drive — A self-guided tour of some trees of Old Ottawa East
Who knew a stroll along Echo Drive could be an exploration of trees from around the world? Following last year’s successful Brantwood Park tree tour, Sustainable Living Ottawa East (SLOE) has created a self-guided tour of Echo’s trees that will contribute to appreciating the diversity and value of our urban forest. Some of the trees come from Siberia, others are from Norway, Japan, Scotland and elsewhere but all of them are here, providing us with oxygen, shade and beauty. In your tour please keep to the sidewalk as many of the identified trees are on private property. For a mobile phone version of the walk, complete with a Google Map of the tour, click on this link.
CURRENT CONDITION AND FUTURE STATUS OF THE 30M SHORELINE “BUFFER” IN GREYSTONE VILLAGE
Prior to its landscaping by Regional, this stretch of shoreline had been mostly untended. While SLOE and individual residents did considerable planting and caretaking work on other stretches of the OOE shoreline, this privately-owned stretch was off bounds. Construction landfill dumped along the shoreline over 50 years ago raised it from flatland to a steep and jumbled embankment. In recent decades it had simply been grass mowed to the edge of that embankment, at which point wherever there was soil and toe-hold, it became revegetated with mostly Manitoba maple (MM).
Read the full report.