York community at Keele and Glendon create greener campuses

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York University community members gathered at both the Glendon and Keele campuses in April for the annual tradition of planting trees in celebration of Earth Month.

Each year the event is organized to help drive positive change by creating a greener campus with restored ecosystems to help mitigate climate change.

Past events have seen hundreds of trees, of a variety of native species, planted. This year, over 100 participants planted a mini orchard with 18 larger fruit trees – including apple, pear, pawpaw and more – and over 100 shrubs to enhance and grow an edible opportunity for an edible campus.

Some of the plantings were targeted to particular locations as well, with the fruit-bearing trees finding their way into the Keele Campus Arboretum, and greenery being placed along the Glendon Campus ravine to help restore erosion around the riverbank.

The event was held in partnership with Regenesis and York’s Property Management Grounds, Facilities Services, with grant funding provided by the City of Toronto.

“It’s the perfect opportunity to come together to take action on our campus and in our everyday lives, as we continue to work on system-level change,” Mike Layton, York’s chief sustainability officer, has said of the occasion.

View a photo gallery of the tree planting events below.

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