Reimagining the Ponds: New nursery will supply 10,000 trees a year

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A lot more trees are about to blossom in London as a south London environmental gem gets a facelift.

ReForest London, the environmental agency dedicated to expanding the city’s tree canopy, has begun work on a massive 1,485-square-metre (16,000-square-foot) nursery that will grow 10,000 trees a year to keep the Forest City green, said co-executive director Shaquille Sealy.

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The nursery is the latest phase in the ongoing redevelopment of the environmentally sensitive ponds area, a green “gem” in the city’s urban centre, into the Westminster Ponds Centre, supporters say.

“It is really about allowing the community to grow trees that make us the Forest City,” Sealy said. “We are creating our own supply chain of trees because it is getting harder with climate change to get these trees.”

Trees from the nursery eventually will fill the demand for trees in the community. 

“This is so we can continue to enjoy green spaces,” Sealy said. “This is a game-changer for London, because we do not have any nurseries now growing trees native to London.”

The nursery, likely to be completed early in 2025, will be home to 35 different species of trees, all native to the Carolinian forest in Southwestern Ontario.

To build the nursery, ReForest received $240,000 over four years from the city, $238,900 over two years from TD Bank Group and $110,000 from the federal government.

It is all part of the transformation of the Westminster Ponds Centre, once a convalescence village for Second World War veterans, into an environmental centre for the public. 

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Two buildings at the ponds, the Huron and Bruce pavilions, have been renovated into office space for ReForest, and others users, including Urban Roots, London Environmental Network, Thames Talbot Land Trust and Thames Valley District school board that has student environmental programs on site.

There are plans to renovate two the Perth and Wellington pavilions. ReForest London is applying for government grants to do the work.

“Our biggest challenge right now is funding,” said Virginia Daugharty, ReForest board member and Westminster Ponds Centre committee member.

“This redevelopment is very important. I call it a gem, a piece of paradise,” in the city,” she said. “It is an example of how important sustainability and the environment is. There is nothing else like this in London.”

The rouughly 5.7-hectare (14-acre) Westminster Ponds Centre was launched in 2019 with progress slowed from 2020-22 by the pandemic. The redevelopment began about 15 years ago when the land was sold by London Health Sciences Centre to environmental agencies for $10.

The site’s buildings once housed veterans returning from war in the late 1940s, offering quiet, natural solitude for post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers.

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The entire ponds area itself covers 170 hectares (420 acres), with most of it owned by the city.

ndebono@postmedia.com

ABOUT WESTMINSTER PONDS

• 250 hectares, London’s largest environmentally significant area, made up of open green space, forest and six major glacial ponds and a number of smaller ones
• Owned largely by the city and Upper Thames River Conservation Authority
• The Western Ontario Fish and Game Protective Association, a private organization, owns one pond and some adjacent land

HISTORY

• A mill operated there during the 19th and early 20th centuries
• Westminster Ponds Centre was built by by the federal government in 1946 as a rehabilitation centre for Second World War veterans. Made up of 11 buildings, all named after Western Ontario counties, it housed 196 patients
• Village included auto and print shops, a photo darkroom and swimming pool. Veterans fished in Walker Pond, and had use of two baseball diamonds, a golf course and a bowling alley
• Patients were moved to Parkwood Hospital In 1989

PROPOSED CENTRE ACTIVITIES

• Children’s outdoor education
• Ecological education
• Environmental non-profit offices
• Promotion of the veterans’ history
• Information centre for London’s natural heritage system
• Educational research on urban natural areas

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