Renfrew-Collingwood Community News

News stories from the Renfrew-Collingwood community in East Vancouver

Category Archives: Sports & Recreation


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Renfrew Ravine and Renfrew Park Master Plan moves forward

Update from third open house

by Deanna Cheng

Most residents are satisfied with the City of Vancouver’s master plan to improve Renfrew Community Park but with the Renfrew Ravine, many of them do not want extra paths going into the ravine itself.

That’s what the two dozen or so people who showed up on May 13 to the Slocan Park field house learned. They came to this third open house to review the updated plans and fill out feedback forms. A couple of them had ridden their bicycles through the light drizzle.

According to Ben Mulhall, landscape architect for Catherine Berris Associates, some people at the second open house held early March were against a path on the west side in fear of break-ins and the invasion of privacy. “It was about 50-50, for and against,” he said. “To compromise, we made the pathway only halfway through, ending it at 25th Avenue.”

Local resident Harvey Dueck said, “It’s great that they want to work on the park and restore natural areas in the park.” When he first moved here, he remembered oil floating on the stream (part of Still Creek that runs into Burnaby), possibly from the decommissioned gas station at 22nd and Renfrew.

“The ravine is relatively wild and a refuge in the city, especially for the birds,” Dueck noted. “A path along the stream would disrupt that.”

Michelle Baudais, another resident, agrees with him. “Increasing access to the ravine park is not compatible with the vision to preserve wildlife and restore habitat.” She points to the number-one objective listed on the vision plan. “Protect, enhance and restore habitats and the ecosystem resilience of the creek and forest,” meaning to maintain and encourage the living trees, plants and animals in the area.

Further access to the ravine may lead to pollution and more coyote encounters with the public. Another proposed change will create deeper ponds and put in culverts, channels or conduits for the drain crossing underneath the roads.

Mulhall said, “The fish and salmon can’t travel but with the local pools, small fish can live there. It will give greater diversity to the wildlife nearby. The insects, newts and salamanders.”

For Renfrew Community Park, one third of the parking lot off Renfrew Street will be converted to an off-leash dog park. The wading pool will be converted into a water spray park with a small platform facing the sloped grass eating area.

On the south side of Renfrew Park Community Centre and Renfrew Branch library, there will be community garden plots.

For additional changes or more details, visit Vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/improving-renfrew-ravine-and-renfrew-community-parks.aspx.

Deanna Cheng is a journalism student at Langara college.

Copyright (c) 2013 Renfrew-Collingwood Community News


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New health and physical activity project moves residents

BY ESTHER YUEN

Renfrew-Collingwood community organizations and the University of B.C. Kinesiology Department partnered earlier this year to launch the Renfrew-Collingwood Interculturalism, Health and Physical Activity Initiative. The goal of this project is to promote interculturalism, defined as curiosity about people different from ourselves and a willingness to connect, through physical activity to increase social-connectedness, health and well-being in the community.

Residents of the Renfrew-Collingwood neighbourhood are encouraged to participate in events associated with this initiative and are invited to share their learning experiences. This initiative is expected to continue indefinitely, but is also expected to launch and support other related projects and programs in the neighbourhood.

To support the project, diverse teams made up of Renfrew-Collingwood community leaders have been or are in the process of being established. The steering circle, responsible for giving direction to this initiative, consists of representatives from Collingwood Community Policing, Vancouver Coastal Health, Windermere Family of Schools, Collingwood Neighbourhood House, Renfrew Park Community Centre, UBC and Collingwood Business Improvement Association. The Intercultural Communicators Circle disseminates stories and information, and the Intercultural Connectors Circle, once formed, will reach out to groups that are identified as low-participatory groups.

UBC faculty, staff and students will be working alongside the three circles as well as Renfrew-Collingwood residents or groups who are or will be involved in intercultural physical activities. Led by Dr. Wendy Frisby, the UBC group will act as an academic resource to the community and assist the community in documenting the project. Their aim is to build capacity around the neighbourhood and, in the process, gain insight into real-life community development.

Between now and December 2013, all three circles and UBC representatives will work together to identify existing skills and to learn new skills, create a regularly updated map of intercultural physical activities in the community, promote and communicate about the initiative and document and review the project process.

Residents of the Renfrew-Collingwood neighbourhood should contact Paula Carr at pcarr@cnh.bc.ca if they have questions or are able to contribute to the map or organize events and programs that promote community and intercultural physical activity. The Intercultural Communications Circle is also actively looking for motivational stories from community members that give insight into stories about community-based physical health initiatives.

Copyright (c) 2013 Renfrew-Collingwood Community News


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How to plant a tree

And help grow an urban forest

BY JULIE CHENG

Loosely tying a tree to stakes lets it wave in the wind and strengthens its roots.

Loosely tying a tree to stakes lets it wave in the wind and strengthens its roots. Photo by Michael Douglas/City of Vancouver

“Planting a tree is not hard,” says tree expert David Tracey. “Nature does it all the time.”

We just have to do what nature does.

Still, the dozen neighbours who’d come out to Slocan Park this chilly morning, with rain clouds overhead, learned many new tree-planting tips, like the proper posture to dig and an easy way to check how well your soil drains.

Most of us were picking up a tree we’d ordered through the Treekeepers program, which “helps Vancouver residents plant and tend the urban forest in the world’s greenest city.” By becoming a treekeeper, we have our tree monitored by volunteer citizen foresters.

What to watch for
Welcoming our questions throughout the hands-on lesson, Tracey gave easy-to-understand instructions with good humour and contagious enthusiasm.

David Tracey knows a thing or two about trees. He is the executive director of TreeCity, a certified arborist and the author of Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto and Urban Agriculture: Ideas and Designs for the New Food Revolution.

The biggest problem is people plant too deep, he notes.

You need to plant above the graft line, he says, pointing to the bottom of the trunk where it bulges. If there is soil covering the graft line, roots will sprout from the rootstock tree, not the tree you want.

It’s most important to check the roots. Make sure the roots have not wound around the inside of the pot, called girdling. Girdled roots can continue to grow in a circle and choke the tree of air and water.

Steps to plant a tree

  1. Choose a location that gets lots of sun, has well-draining soil and has lots of space for the tree to grow
  2. Dig a hole three times the width of the pot that the tree comes in. Rough up the edges of the hole so that roots can reach into them
  3. Check the roots for girdling
  4. Make sure the hole is not too deep. An easy way to do this is to place the shovel handle horizontally across the hole. Sit the tree in the hole so that the graft line is level with the shovel handle. If too deep, add more soil then line up the tree again
  5. Tamp down the soil to make sure the tree doesn’t settle. Check again that the tree is not too deep
  6. Cover the roots with soil
  7. Water well
  8. Hammer in one or two stakes and loosely attach the tree to them with soft ties that will not cut into the trunk
  9. Until the tree is established, water twice a week and more often in hot weather
  10. Enjoy your tree for years to come

Near the end of our lesson, a light rain started. Perfect. Us neighbours happily carried our prized tree home and couldn’t wait to get planting.

See Treekeeper’s video, How to Plant a Tree, featuring David Tracey.

Julie Cheng is a registered treekeeper of a young plum tree, an accidental gardener and a compulsive moss puller who starts her day picking slugs off her peas and lettuce. In her spare time, she pulls invasive plants out of the Renfrew Ravine and edits the Renfrew-Collingwood Community News.

Treekeepers, a partnership between TreeCity, the Environmental Youth Alliance, the Vancouver Park Board and the Vancouver Foundation, supports Vancouver’s Greenest City 2020 Action Plan. Treekeepers.ca

Copyright (c) 2013 Renfrew-Collingwood Community News