Birchmount School students now have the opportunity to learn more about ecosystems, with the addition of a Food Forest.
The K to 8 school partnered with the Petitcodiac Watershed for the project.
Watershed Spokesperson Brittany Cormier says a Food Forest is a naturally planted area, “You have native trees, native shrubs and native flowers working together and growing together to have these more bio diverse, really naturally rich areas that also happen to make food.”
Grades 7 and 8 teachers Melanie Doucet says during COVID-19 teachers were encouraged to have students doing more activities outdoors.
“So we decided to grow mostly trees and bushes that provide food. So, they have different harvest times. It will start from spring to fall, that the time in forest there is something to eat,” Doucet says.
She says they have already grown food for the students and for others dealing with food security issues. “For my science class, we are going to be studying how the growth of an ecosystem starts. So, we are going to create a website that explains this. They will be studying how the ecosystem is built. Every year, the grade 8’s are going to add to that database on our website.”
The project was funded through TD Tree Days project was funded through TD Tree Days.
