Green Communities Canada is actively seeking partners to join us to help establish mini forests in communities across the country, and join our application to the Urban Tree Planting stream of the 2 Billion Trees program for 2024.

ABOUT THE PROJECT 

The National Mini Forest Project is a joint project of Green Communities Canada, Dougan and Associates, Wilder Climate Solutions, and Canadian Geographic, collaborating through the Network of Nature, which will be implemented at the local level by Local Partner Organizations (community organizations, institutions, and municipalities) in collaboration with their local stakeholders and volunteers. GCC will provide training and technical support to Local Partner Organizations to help ensure their mini forest planting  activities are engaging, safe, and successful.

The mini forest project addresses the lack of green spaces in urban environments, and demand for fast growing forests as a carbon sequestration/climate change mitigation strategy. Through an innovative tree planting method (modeled after the Miyawaki forest technique), sites will be transformed into dense, diverse, native planted forests that grow at an accelerated rate. Mini forests provide a host of ecosystem services, such as reduced heat island effect, improved stormwater drainage, increased habitat, improved air quality, mental health benefits, and carbon sequestration. Mini forests require little long-term maintenance, and make it possible to plant greater quantities of trees in smaller plots. Our mini forest program works with local partners to identify appropriate mini forest sites, prepare the site, and engage community volunteers for planting events. The events will attract media and political attention, and raise awareness of the issues surrounding the lack of urban tree cover.

ABOUT THE APPLICATION


Green Communities Canada would act as a lead applicant to the Urban Tree Planting Stream of the Federal 2 Billion Tree program, responsible for ensuring project deliverables are met by providing:

  • Ongoing guidance and logistical support to partners
  • Administrative, educational, and professional supports, including online mini forest coordinator training, sample species lists, site preparation guidance, maintenance planning templates, and communications tools
  • Mini Forest site installation funding (grants of ~15K per 100m2 site to be used as required for site implementation)
  • Project reporting to the federal government

Prospective partners will be responsible for local project delivery, including:

  • Identifying a minimum of 1 publicly accessible site to be planted as a mini forest in 2024 . Sites must be a minimum of 100m2 and planted with a minimum of 300 trees. Funding values are based on these minimum requirements.
  • Partners may identify and be funded to implement multiple sites, and sites may be larger in scale and designed to accommodate more than 300 trees.
  • Sites should be confirmed at least 3 weeks before grant application submission deadline (either, April 16th or June 16th 2023) 
  • Identifying some degree of matching funding (ideally project partners will match each 15K grant contribution with a minimum of 7.5K in cash contributions, and 7.5K in-kind contributions per site)
  • Securing volunteers, and plant stock to plant the site
  • Installing permanent signage at the site
  • Reporting project outcomes to GCC using templates provided 
This survey is meant to help capture information from prospective partners in this application, and identify opportunities to collaborate to meet the minimum planting threshold of 10K trees per year. Please note - the application to the 2 Billion Tree program requires sites to be identified, alongside number of trees and a short list of potential species to be planted. We are asking partners to only submit sites that are at least ~75% certain to be planted in 2024.  Should contexts change, and sites change from that which was submitted in the application, partners would remain responsible for planting the allocated trees in a newly identified site by grant deadlines. Survey submission does not constitute a partnership commitment, or promise of funding from GCC.

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* 1. Organization Name

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* 2. Organization Location (City, Province)

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* 3. Project Lead (name, title)

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* 4. Project Lead (email)

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* 5. Has your organization ever coordinated a mini forest planting event before?

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* 6. How long has your organization been working on green infrastructure related, or tree planting projects?

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* 7. Do you have a site in mind for your mini forest?

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* 8. If you have one or more site(s) already identified for planting in 2024, please share some details in the comment box below, including: the name(s), address(es), site size(s), partners involved, and approximate number of trees to be planted.

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* 9. Do you have any additional funding or in-kind contributions for tree planting projects in 2024?  If so, please list funding source and amount.

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* 10. Do you anticipate working alongside other local partners to coordinate your mini forest project?

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* 11. If you answered "Yes" to the previous question, please name the partners you anticipate reaching out to about the mini forest project. Note: GCC is happy to provide a briefing about the program to support community organizations partnering with their municipalities or other local institutions on this program.

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* 12. Does your organization have capacity to support the mini forest program as a regional partner, supporting the logistics, fund administration, and reporting for other local organizations?

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* 13. Would you be able to secure a letter of support (template to be provided) from your organization, or partnering organizations to support our application to the federal government?

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* 14. Approximately how many trees does your organization plan to plant (with volunteers) as mini forests in 2024?

(Note: minimum size requirements of a mini forest site are 100m2, and 300 trees; individual sites may be larger in scale and plant more than 300 trees).

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* 15. Would you like to be contacted to take part in our first round of Mini Forest Coordinator training (March, April 2023)?

Thank you for your responses - we'll be in touch about next steps of our application development. If you have any questions or comments in the meantime please email Green Communities Canada Green Infrastructure Manager, Emily Amon at eamon@greencommunitiescanada.org . 

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