Hello, FCF Community!
As the leaves fall and we wrap up our planting season, we’re excited to reflect on an eventful summer and fall at Forêt Capitale Forest! Thanks to the dedication of our incredible volunteers, we successfully planted over 3,000 trees and shrubs across 14 planting events throughout Ottawa in just two months. This fall season has marked significant achievements, including the installation of three new tiny forests and the success of our inaugural fundraiser. From building meaningful partnerships and welcoming new faces into our community, seeing the impact we’ve made together is truly inspiring. Our Annual General Meeting provided a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our progress, share our vision for the future, and connect with all of you. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who contributed to making this season a success.
Dive into this newsletter to relive the highlights and celebrate what we’ve achieved together!
Celebrating Summer Successes
Tree Care Events
While we aren’t planting in the summer, we kept busy by giving our young trees the VIP treatment they deserve! Our weekly tree care events brought volunteers together to clear competing vegetation, provide essential TLC, and learn hands-on tree care tips.
Check out this transformation from our Aviation Pathway site! Competing vines were a big challenge, highlighting the importance of ongoing care for our newly planted trees. Thanks to our volunteers, this tree is now thriving and has a brighter future ahead!
Annual General Meeting
At this year’s Annual General Meeting, we proudly showcased our progress over the past year and unveiled our ambitious plans for the year ahead! With engaging presentations from our staff and inspiring discussions with our supporters and volunteers, it was an evening filled with inspiration, networking, and meaningful connections. Our FCF community continues to grow, and we’re excited to turn our plans into action! A heartfelt thank you to all our supporters for being an essential part of this journey!
Ottawa Horticultural Society
Thanks to the generous donation from the Ottawa Horticultural Society, FCF has built 18 new potting benches for our greenhouse. These custom benches provide us with a dedicated workspace to pot tree seeds and seedlings, and care for our forbs until they’re ready for planting in our forest sites across the city. In 2025, the benches will also serve as a space for growing native species trees from seeds collected by our newly certified tree seed collectors. As FCF continues to grow, donations like this help us operate more efficiently and effectively. A huge thank you to OHS from the entire FCF team!
Educating for a Greener Tomorrow
An integral part of our mission at FCF is our commitment to educate and actively involve the community in our initiatives. Over the past few months, we’ve hosted many tours at our Base of Operations for community members and youth groups aged 5 to 17. Participants learned about the layers of the forest canopy and how to create sustainable edible landscapes. We’re excited to inspire our community to appreciate and care for our green spaces, encouraging the next generation to contribute to a greener future!
Ottawa Tourism
On September 11th, FCF partnered with C’est Bon Ottawa and Ottawa Tourism to host about 40 clients, accommodation partners, and event planners at the Just Food Community Farm. The FCF team led a forest experience tour, showcasing our food forest, Base of Operations plantings, walking paths, and the beautiful expanse of the Birch Path Healing Forest and healing circle. The event was a great success, and we’re excited to deepen our partnership with Ottawa Tourism and event planners to offer conference attendees opportunities for planting events, tree care, and workshop experiences at our site starting in 2025!
Fall Plantings In Review
Wow! This fall has been our busiest planting season yet, with over 3,000 trees and shrubs planted at sites all across the city! Take a look at what we’ve done:
Vincent Massey Park
In celebration of National Tree Day, we partnered with Tree Canada, the National Capital Commission (NCC), and CIMA+ on September 28th to plant 650 trees at Vincent Massey Park! With the support of over 150 community volunteers, these trees are now rooted and ready to grow for generations to come. It was a day filled with positive energy, teamwork, and community spirit — thank you to everyone who made it a success!
On October 8th, we also teamed up with Rogers employees to plant an additional 100 trees at the same site through Tree Canada’s Partners in Planting Program, bringing the total to an impressive 750 trees at Vincent Massey Park alone!
Hog’s Back Park
As part of Tree Canada’s Partners in Planting Program, we also teamed up with volunteers from LCBO and Schneider Electric to plant 200 trees at Hog’s Back Park, expanding the existing site and strengthening its green canopy. This collaboration marks another important step in our goal of restoring and enhancing Ottawa’s green spaces, and we’re grateful for the hard work and enthusiasm each volunteer brought to this effort!
Tiny Forests
This fall, we were thrilled to expand our urban forestry efforts with the addition of three new tiny forests in Ottawa, created in collaboration with EnviroCentre.
One of these tiny forests, generously funded by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was planted at Robert E. Wilson Public School. Students joined us to bring this vibrant 200m² green space to life in their schoolyard. This hands-on experience allowed them to build a meaningful connection with the natural world right outside their classrooms.
Two additional tiny forests were established with Ottawa Community Housing (OCH) at Russell Manor and Strathcona Heights, thanks to funding from the Josette Robertson and Joan Johnston Family Foundation. Community residents joined us to plant more than 30 species of trees and shrubs across 100m² and 50m² areas, transforming these spaces into lively, accessible green landscapes for everyone to enjoy for years to come.
Growing Strong at Mer Bleue
We’re thrilled to share that our largest planting project to date in the Mer Bleue sector is well underway and off to an amazing start!
In the last two months, 1,500 trees have been planted here through the hard work of our dedicated volunteers and community partners. With 1,400 trees provided by Tree Canada through their Operation ReLeaf and Tremendous Communities programs, plus 100 trees from Trees for Life—and funding already secured for another 1,300 trees next year—this project stands as a true community-driven accomplishment.
This project would not have been possible without the help from our incredible volunteers from Carleton University, La Cité, Raymond James, Fast Track Staffing, CIRA, Delta Hotels, Ottawa Sai Centre, Canadian Conservation Corps Flex, and the 45 community members who powered through planting, mulching, and applying tree guards to prepare the trees for winter. Your hard work is helping to bring our vision of a greener future to life!
On October 18th, the FCF team led 60 Carleton University field course students in planting 500 trees while engaging in a hands-on assignment focused on afforestation, species diversity, and tree identification. We are grateful for the opportunity to educate and inspire these passionate students about the importance of tree care and afforestation. We look forward to seeing them continue their journey as future tree stewards!
For being a part of this project, every participant at this site earned their first Capital Forest Service badge—the Backwoods Botanist —while helping restore this stunning, rugged landscape!
Celebrating Milestones with World Skills
We are excited to highlight the recent collaboration with the World Skills Employment Centre as they celebrated their 25th anniversary by planting 25 trees with us! On October 3rd, a passionate group of 20 staff members came together at our Base of Operations to mark this significant occasion.
These trees, planted in honour of their milestone, will play a vital role in creating a more sustainable future for all!
Fall Event Highlights
Birch Path Healing Forest Launch & National Day of Truth and Reconciliation
The Birch Path Healing Forest is a beautiful site co-located near the FCF Base of oOperations at the Just Food Community Farm in Blackburn Hamlet. FCF has been actively caring for the site for the past 2 years. In 2024, we helped with a project outlined by the Birch Path Healing Forest committee who received a Treemendous Communities grant to create tri-lingual signage and establish a Berry Picking path to run alongside the path of birch trees. This project was inspired by such guidance as the Anishinaabe Wiisiniiwinan/ge’inanjiget Traditional Food Guide which reminds us that berry picking is healing and a very direct way to connect us with the land. You can learn more about the site directly from some of the Birch Path Healing Forest committee in this CBC radio interview.
In September, we were involved in several events, a launch event on the Fall Equinox and a planting event on National Truth and Reconciliation Day. Peter Croal, a dedicated FCF volunteer and co-founder of the National Healing Forest initiative with Patricia Stirbys, shared this wonderful observation regarding the Birch Path Healing Forest launch, “the Birch Path Healing Forest was opened on September 22, which is the Fall Equinox… a day when there is equal amount of light and dark. This symbolizes balance, which Healing Forests can provide to help with healing and reconciliation.”
Many berry bushes were planted as part of the event that also included a sacred fire and prayers, traditional songs and drumming and storytelling as well as a seed dance led by Doreen Stevens (known as Animitagize Odaying / Clearwaterwoman Speaking From the Heart). The funding for the berry bushes came through a Tree Canada Treemendous Communities grant, and generous sponsorship for the planting from the LCBO.
We continued planting berry bushes on September 30th, National Truth and Reconciliation Day with an energetic group of high school students, ending with some quiet contemplation time and some berry preserves at the close of the event.
Farm Fest & SmartNet Sustainability Event
FCF set up a booth for 2 fall events and was happy to share information about our mission, offer tours of our Base of Operations, and sell low-sugar food forest preserves contributed from Nanabush Food Forests as a fundraising activity. As part of the Fall Farm Fest, we also had native trees and shrubs to sell and for the SMARTnet Sustainability Showcase event, we had offered a hardy peach seed give-away that included stratification and growing instructions. We were fortunate to have the seed offered to us from Sundaura Alford-Purvis of A Cultivated Art for sharing with others. She has several productive hardy peach trees on her property and we have many young trees that we have started growing at our Base of Operations.
Growing Together for a Greener Ottawa – FCF’s Inaugural Fundraiser
We’re happy to share that our first Lunch & Workshop Fundraiser, Growing Together for a Greener Ottawa, was a tremendous success! Over 40 passionate supporters came together to enjoy a delightful catered lunch while learning about our exciting new volunteer-citizen forestry service program, aimed at empowering the community to actively participate in caring for Ottawa’s green spaces.
The event also included an interactive workshop where guests collaborated to create their own low-input edible landscapes, allowing their creativity to shine in an engaging and fun experience!
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who attended and supported our mission. Your enthusiasm and generosity inspire us to continue making a positive impact. A special thank you to Joan Johnston for sharing her inspiring journey and to the Josette Robertson and Joan Johnston Family Foundation for their ongoing support. Together, we are paving the way for a greener future!
Looking Ahead…
Coming Soon: The Capital Forest Service!
Get ready for the Capital Forest Service, an exciting new initiative designed to inspire volunteers by rewarding them with digital badges for completing a variety of forestry-related tasks, such as planting, tree care, seed collection, and more. As you earn badges, you’ll advance through achievement levels and gain recognition for your important contributions to the urban forests in the National Capital Region. Stay tuned for more details on how you can be part of this rewarding experience!
Just Food Community Farm Christmas Market
Visit FCF at the Just Food Community Farm Christmas Market on December 7th and 8th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Big Red Barn at 2391 Pepin Court! We’ll be joining many wonderful local vendors and producers, offering delicious treats and gifts from the Nanabush Food Forests, along with our annual Christmas fundraising drive to support FCF’s mission of planting and caring for trees in 2025. Stay tuned for more details!
