You told us loud and clear – Now it’s your chance to make an impact in your park!

Friends of Berczy Park members have repeatedly told us that the trees are what you value most in our park. So, join our Friends of Berczy Park Adopt-a-Tree program to help care for these trees and create greenery that generations will enjoy!

Sept 28th update: There’s still time to adopt a tree! Stop by the park for a few minutes to choose your tree on either Saturday Sept 30, 11am-noon, or Wednesday Oct 4, 6-7pm. Look for us by the shady wooden platform, just northeast of the fountain, and send an email to berczypark@gmail.com , to let us know you are coming.

Thanks to generous support from the LEAF non-profit organization, Friends of Berczy Park is inviting community-members to play a hands-on role helping us tend the young trees during their first couple of vulnerable years of life. Volunteer adopters can take part at no cost!

What’s involved? Not too much:

Attend quick training in the park to be assigned your tree and learn to water and care for the tree.

Come once a week to water your tree, using the hose and supplies installed by Friends of Berczy Park. – likely 30 minutes per week. If needed, we can match you with a buddy to share the task when you are busy.

Although registered volunteers should be 18-years-of-age or older, this is a great activity for a family to do together, or an adult participant to bring along a youngster and involve them in nature.

Best of all, this is a free activity for our adopters, thanks to our sponsor LEAF.

How do I sign up?

Easy! Send an email to berczypark@gmail.com with the subject line ‘Adopt-a-tree’ program. Include your full name, address and phone #, and any questions you may have. We’ll respond and arrange a date for your brief orientation/training along with the other volunteers.

Expect the training and program to get under way by mid-late July, 2017.

Aren’t the Berczy Park trees on an irrigation system?

About half of the trees in Berczy Park are on an irrigation system with the innovative ‘silva cell’ technology to collect rain water and allow deep roots to grow (the trees on hard surface/pavement).

However, the rest of the trees (on turf/lawn areas) require regular watering like any young tree. So, we have lovely recently-planted elms, oaks, tulip trees and magnolia, as well as a number of mature/preserved trees, including ginkgo, katsura, pagoda, and amur cork, that need to be adopted too.

How will we know what to do?

Friends of Berczy Park is grateful to have won a grant from LEAF, and its corporate and government sponsors, (among them TD Friends of the Environment Foundation and the City of Toronto) to introduce their widely-admired Adopt-a-Tree program in our park. During spring/summer 2017, LEAF’s Young Urban Forestry Leaders (female post-secondary students studying the fields of urban forestry and arboriculture) will inventory the Berczy Park trees, develop a stewardship plan for the park and help Friends of Berczy roll out the program. They are the experts and they’ll teach us how to run a successful program like others in Toronto parks.

That’s it! Thanks in advance for raising your hand to volunteer, for trying out your ‘green thumb’, and for helping make our new park green, lush and beautiful for many years to come!