Elgin Street Public School has received a $1,000 grant toward a tree-planting project, through the Metro Green Apple Program.
The program provides money to schools in Ontario for environmentally-friendly school projects.
The project will be the first stage toward the creation of an "outdoor classroom," the grant application said. It also aims to attract more urban wildlife and create local ecosystems that provide habitat and food for animals and birds.
The school says its yard has been affected by the emerald ash borer, an insect the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says is highly destructive by attacking and killing ash trees. Native to eastern Asia, the insect was first discovered in Windsor, Ont., and Detroit, Mich., in 2002 and has since killed millions of ash trees on both sides of the border.
The school says the donation would help plant new non-ash species of trees.
Meanwhile, Elgin Street also received a separate $1,000 grant for a project to protect young trees. Plastic tubes will be placed over seedlings to protect them from small mammals, as well as Ottawa’s extreme temperatures, the application said.
Metro Inc. launched its Green Apple School Program in 2009. In total, the supermarket giant will donate $1 million to schools across Ontario.
For more information about the Green Apple School Program, visit www.greenapplegrants.ca.