We looked for nut trees in particular for their productive value, specimens whose nuts future students here at Yorkdale could harvest in the greenhouse. The Green Committee was delighted when Canada Trust's Friends of the Environment Foundation notified us in the winter of 2000 that financial assistance for a springtime naturalization project was on the way.

Kingdom - Phylum - Class - Order - Family - Genus - Species - Individual

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In the spring of 2000, when schools around the country were looking for interesting ways to welcome in the third millennium, the Green Committee speculated how this corner of North America might have appeared in its original state. A bit of investigating showed innumerable pine, oak, ash, maple, cedar, beech, and spruce, a small part of the Carolinian ecozone that enveloped the shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.

The project began on May 26, 2000, when 125 staff and students planted 18 nut--bearing trees and a 300-foot cedar hedge along the western edge of the school property. The outdoors is actually a vast classroom providing a wealth of teachable moments for interested educators. The Ontario Society for Environmental Education (OSEE), for example, has developed a 'dichotomous learning key' - a simple either-or guide to visually identifying trees in terms of leaf type, twig shape, and branching pattern. With this key, and a basic introduction to Linnaeus' system of Genus and species, students can begin to explore the ecology.