October 2015 Newsletter

Read our October Newsletter and find out about innovation and investment in Ontario's Greenbelt

This month's newsletter includes:

• Pilot Project to add 130,000 tender fruit trees in Niagara
• Newest research looks at successful Greenbelt farms
• Getting your Greenbelt fix this winter

And More!

Tales from Niagara is a blog series focused on the people and places that make Niagara’s Greenbelt great. The series will cover everything from local businesses, to seasonal events, to life on Niagara farms. Look out for our upcoming posts to stay up-to-date and informed on exciting going-ons in Niagara's Greenbelt. 

Thursday October 2nd was an exciting night for the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation.

That evening, Foundation's Niagara Office staff joined 300 of Niagara’s top volunteers, executives, and philanthropists at the Holiday Inn & Suites Parkway Conference Centre for the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce’s 2015 Niagara Business Achievement Awards Ceremony. 

Funding to support the development of a master plan for the Credit Valley Trail was announced on the Culham Trail near Credit Valley Conservation’s administration office in Mississauga, on September 11, 2015.  Project lead Susan Robertson (far right) and Greenbelt Foundation Vice-President Susan Murray (sixth from the right) attended the announcement with local councillors and provincial politicians.  

On September 11, 2015 the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation and Credit Valley Conversation announced a plan to develop a 110-kilometre hiking trail along the Credit River.

With a $100,000 grant from the Foundation, Credit Valley Conservation, partnering with the Credit Valley Heritage Society, will bring to life a 60-year old vision of a connected pedestrian corridor. The new 110-km trail will allow walkers and cyclists to travel from the Credit River headwaters in Orangeville to the mouth of the river at Port Credit on Lake Ontario.

The full trail is expected to be finished in 10-15 years.

The first step is to engage members of the public in the four municipalities along the river to develop the preferred route, identify the cultural and natural highlights along the way, and assess land securement priorities. 

To kick-start the process, we asked our Greenbelt Friends living along or near the proposed route to complete a short survey about what they’d like to see as part of the new Credit Valley Trail.

We received almost 200 responses!

Below, project-lead Susan Robertson gives us the scoop on what people want from the new Credit Valley Trail.   

Pilot Project announcement on October 14 in Niagara-on-the-Lake. From left, Phil Tregunno, chair of the Ontario Tender Fruit Growers, Jim Bradley, MPP St. Catharines, Wayne Gates MPP Niagara Falls, Burkhard Mausberg, CEO of Friends of the Greenbelt, Lord Mayor Pat Dart, Niagara-on-the-Lake. 

Last week the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation announced a $400,000 investment in the Niagara tender fruit industry. 

Not only is it the largest investment we've made in the last five years into the province’s agricultural sector, it will also result in 13,000 new tender fruit trees in Niagara, and is projected to provide an injection of roughly $4 million into Ontario’s economy.

All that to say - we're pretty excited.

On August 11, 2015 we officially launched the Greenbelt 10th Anniversary Photo Contest, arguably our most ambitious contest to-date.

We invited photographers from across the province to submit their best Greenbelt shots - the winning photographs were to be displayed in special exhibit at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and, eventually, to tour various locations across the Greenbelt. 

We'd secured two great partners--the Professional Photographers of Canada and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection--and we knew from experience that many talented photographers find inspiration in the Greenbelt's diverse landscapes. And yet, there was still that lingering worry  - "Suppose we couldn't get enough entries?" 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 14, 2015

 PILOT PROJECT TO PLANT 130,000 TENDER FRUIT TREES IN NIAGARA
New Partnership Will See Up to 500 Acres Planted & Harvested Over Next Four Years

The Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation and Ontario Tender Fruit Growers are launching a pilot project to plant up to 130,000 tender fruit tree varieties, such as peaches and pears, to provide a financial boost to Greenbelt growers, strengthen this key economic sector, and increase prosperity in the Niagara Region.

I really love good news. 

In 2010, the Greenbelt Fund was created as a non-profit organization to help encourage the consumption of local food in and around the Greenbelt. Since its launch, the Fund has supported dozens of projects, increasing the amount of local food purchased across the province. With the Province’s support, the Greenbelt Fund has delivered results: for every $1 invested, we’ve seen a return of $13 worth of purchases of Ontario-grown food! That’s putting more local food on Ontarians’ plates that was previously imported.

Last week, the Province announced they would be providing $6 million over three years to continue the Fund’s work increasing sales of local food, making it more widely available and building awareness of the variety of food grown and produced in Ontario.

This is a big deal, and at the Greenbelt Fund, it’s a celebration.

Tales from Niagara is a blog series focused on the people and places that make Niagara’s Greenbelt great. The series will cover everything from local businesses, to seasonal events, to life on Niagara farms. Look out for our upcoming posts to stay up-to-date and informed on exciting going-ons in Niagara's Greenbelt. 

It’s a sunny autumn day in Niagara, and families are all smiles as they walk through the displays that lead to Howell Family Pumpkin Farm. Little do they know, they’re walking right past the spot where 40 years ago, they would have found a nine year old Jerry Howell on the side of the road with a wheelbarrow full of pumpkins. Early that spring, Jerry had convinced his parents to plant one row of pumpkins in a back field of what was then a pig and chicken farm. When he sold that wheelbarrow full for twenty eight dollars, an amount he described as a LOT of money in 1975, he asked his parents that next year, they plant two rows. The following years, he set out carved pumpkins on his front lawn and people started coming just to see the displays. When people asked for corn stalks and squash, he started growing it. When they asked if he gave tours or wagon rides, Jerry, who described himself as an “entrepreneurial” young man, added them. Forty years later, Howells is a Greenbelt gem, drawing tourists from Niagara and beyond.

The end of the summer is upon us, which also foreshadows the end of the gardening season. Not to tout my own horn, but I’ve learned a few things about community gardening through overseeing the 2015 growing season of the Greenbelt Foundation's New Canadian Go Greenbelt grant. One of the grant's main purposes was to supply Chinese and South Asian crop seedlings to 14 low-income community gardens found throughout the Greater Toronto Area.