By Spencer Sterritt

Nanaimo students get their hands dirty to provide a cleaner, healthier future

Dec 15, 2017 | 6:12 PM

NANAIMO — A previously unused corner of Beaufort Park in Central Nanaimo should soon be a thriving food forest thanks to many young local students.

Montessori school students and City of Nanaimo staff planted dozens of fruit trees on Friday, Dec. 15 and learned about how to care for nature.

Environmental planner Rob Lawrence said he was thrilled to look out over the park and see dozens of young students working to expand what used to be an overlooked blackberry field.

“The point of this spot is revitalizing a space in a park that had really been ignored for many years,” he told NanaimoNewsNOW.

It’s taken many years to get the park to where it is now, with many organizations involved, but Lawrence said now they have a real chance of providing fresh, cheap fruit, hands-on education and a new green space in the City.

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“This is really an opportunity to see how this could work. This could be the beginning of a larger program we could develop.”

Nanaimo FoodShare has already looked at the land and Lawrence said they plan on using the park as part of their gleaning program, where volunteers pick fruit and vegetables from backyards and gardens which would otherwise be wasted.

Not just fruit trees were planted. Shrubs and bushes are also being added to complement the area and help bees and insect pollinate the area and turn it into a thriving forest.

“It’s gonna take some time,” Lawrence admitted. “It’s going to be about three or four years before we actually start seeing fruit.” Even though it will take some time to develop, Lawrence said there’s no time like the present to get the project underway and provide for a healthier future.

Funding for the trees came from BC Hydro.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit