Riverview school gets grant from Shell to plant $3,400 worth of trees

Ken Johnston
Editor

Enthusiasm grew to tall tree heights last Tuesday when Riverview School in Rainy River received word that it was selected as a successful recipient of a “Green Canada’s School Grounds” grant.
The program is operated by the Trees Canada Foundation and is sponsored by Shell Canada.
Last year the program was brought to the attention of the Riverview Parent Council. Rose Tetu volunteered to take it on and within a couple of months she had put together a 26 page application.
Tetu said that she has always wanted to plant lots of trees on the school grounds which are mostly prairie like in nature, with the exception of a few trees in the parking area. However two things always prevented that hope from materializing. Most of the time small trees were planted and they did not survive well. The other obstacle was funding.
In order to insure success, more mature trees were needed to prevent them from being trampled or dying from the elements. When the Green Schools program was introduced, Tetu thought it would be the answer and last Tuesday they received word that it will be to the tune of $3,400.
Local Shell representative Bill Marmus said that Rainy River was picked over many other communities including Kenora.
Tetu’s application included photos of the barren treeless school yard, blueprints for what the grounds will look like after planting, plans for planting and the care of the trees, a list of the learning and environmental benefits and letters of support from members of the community.
A good many of the trees will be planted around the track which presently has no trees around it. Tetu has ordered the trees from Hammonds Nursery and expects to take delivery of green ash, silver maple, birch, Canadian red cherry, flowering crab apple, weeping willows, mountain ash, lilac, black hills spruce, pyramid cedar, sabina juniper, potentilla shrubs and some perennials in May. She has already begun to gather a list of volunteers to do the planting and care for them over the summer.