Local High School Students Just Planted 350 Native Trees & Shrubs At Marsdale Drive Stormwater Management Pond

On Friday (October 23rd), Otonabee Conservation and local secondary school students from the Youth Leadership in Sustainability (YLS) program planted a variety of trees and shrubs along the shoreline of the stormwater management pond on Marsdale Drive in Peterborough. 

The variety of native trees and shrubs selected for this shoreline naturalization project include fragrant sumac, red osier dogwood, elderberry, snowberry, serviceberry, black chokeberry, and silky dogwood. These species provide a number of benefits including habitat for wildlife and stabilization of the shoreline around the pond. 

YLS Lead teacher and Coordinator, Cam Douglas, inspects the roots of a red osier dogwood with student Kaitlin Potter before planting at the Marsdale Drive Stormwater Management Pond in Peterborough. (photo courtesy Otonabee Conservation)

“We are pleased to collaborate with the City of Peterborough, who is responsible for the ongoing vegetation management and operation of the stormwater management pond, to engage local youth in naturalization projects like this,” says Dan Marinigh, Otonabee Conservation’s CAO. “These types of opportunities allow students to participate in positive, meaningful actions to mitigate climate change in our watershed.”

The YLS program is an experiential-learning program based in Peterborough that prepares grade 11 and 12 students for leadership roles in sustainability initiatives at the local and global levels.

“One of the goals of YLS is to connect students to the organizations that are doing important community work,” says YLS Lead Teacher and Coordinator, Cam Douglas. “It’s important for students to learn about the work itself, and also to see the faces of organizations like Otonabee Conservation, so they can begin to understand what people do and the educational pathways people follow to get into this kind of work.”

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