SP0279: Macdonald Campus Pollinator Meadow

This project has 2 major components. The first is the creation and maintenance of the pollination meadow, and the second is community outreach and influence.

More specifically, the first component of this project is the conversion of a ~1/2 acre area of unused lawn into a meadow for supporting native plant, bird and insect species. This 1/2 acre piece of land will be modified in 2 stages;

1. A diagonal path will be created through the meadow for observation of the habitats.
2. The lawn will be removed and replaced with a more diverse selection of native plants.

A section of the lawn will not be maintained as an experiment to see how the presence of a nearby healthy ecosystem will affect the previously maintained lawn.

The first stage of this project is site preparation and will take place over the summer. It involves the preparation of the path, and removal of the lawn. Clear plastic will be reused to kill the lawn.

The second stage of this project is seeding and planting of plugs and saplings during the fall and spring. The saplings will be provided by McGill, and we have already found some options where we can source the seeds and plugs from. We will ensure that all our plant material is organic.

Long term maintenance of this project will be managed by the grounds crew, the student in the position of "Meadow Manager" in the permaculture club, and Dr. Kyle Elliot.

The primary costs of this project are the materials for creating the path, such as gravel dust, the plant seeds and plugs, and the signs. All labour will be volunteer-based. Many materials will be sourced from the campus, or reused from other waste streams.
We are also excited about the second component: community outreach and awareness. We have been consulting Ingrid Chiraz, the Mac scientific outreach coordinator on this topic and have many ideas. There will be fun and educational signs within the meadow. These signs will have QR codes that lead to a multilingual website, created by our team members, with detailed instructions on how anyone local can do a similar project. The project already has made connections with the David Suzuki Foundation, Healthy Schools Day and John Abbot College, and the Indigenous Initiatives Office.