
The Rooted in Hope project was officially launched on August 19th in the parking lot of Gore Meadows Recreation Centre. Sonia Maset, Program Administrator for the Brampton Bike Hub trained four senior team leads on bike safety and skills training.

Sonia then took them for a short ride to familiarize them with riding on the roads in and around the recreational facility. Another training event with the “uncles” is scheduled for this Saturday August 26th.
This past Monday August 21st, another training event took place. This time it involved students from local high schools who are to be the team leads for tree planting and monitoring along with a teacher from Louise Arbour Secondary School.

The training event was led by Alice Casselman – President, Association of Canadian Educational Resources (ACER), and Dr. Sadia Butt ACER’s Project Manager who is also an ISA certified arborist with over 20 years experience as an urban forest practitioner, researcher, and environmental educator. Together, Alice and Sadia provided a full day of training to the participants about tree monitoring, tree species identification, knowledge of equipment used in tree monitoring and an introduction to online software that identifies how much carbon a tree is storing based on the data collected.

Data collection is a big part of this project and will be used to help inform the City of Brampton’s urban forest management plan.
The Rooted in Hope Project currently involves three Brampton high schools, Harold M. Brathwaite S.S., Heart Lake S.S, Castlebrooke S.S., with Louise Arbour S.S. expected to join this fall.

Hopefully we will see everyone at the tree planting events on September 6th , September 13th, and September 20th. All events run from 3:30-5:00pm @ Gore Meadows Community Centre! These events are free and open to anyone, especially seniors and students from the community. Click here to register and receive more information.
The Rooted in Hope project is designed to engage both youth and seniors in understanding the importance of urban trees by planting young trees and then monitoring the growth and health of both new and mature trees in their neighbourhoods. It will also use cycling, a form of active transportation, as the primary means of travel to tree monitoring sites thereby keeping carbon emissions to a minimum. Rooted in Hope is funded through the Ontario Seniors Community Grant Program.
One of our volunteers has graciously put together a 13 minute video describing the benefits of urban tree canopy as well as the challenges and threats facing Brampton’s urban forest. See the video below.