The Helen Schuler Nature Centre is looking for people to sign up for the ‘1,000 Trees in 2023’ program. (Photo: LNN)

By Sarah Jones

Environment Week kicks off in Lethbridge

Jun 5, 2023 | 12:05 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The first week of June is known as Environment Week across Canada.

To kick off the annual event from June 4 to 10, the City of Lethbridge has launched a new survey to let residents provide feedback on how staff can better adapt to the ever-changing climate.

The Climate Adaption Strategy and Action Plan will identify ways the City of Lethbridge can better weatherproof the city when an extreme weather event occurs.

Raene Barber, Sustainability Engineer with the City of Lethbridge Waste & Environment department said, “What we’re looking to do, is gather feedback from residents to inform on how we can best prepare for our future against changing climate and extreme weather events.”

She added, “As we’ve seen recently with the northern Alberta wildfires, changing and extreme weather events can cost communities millions in damage to assets and services. This work will help the City [of Lethbridge] identify the climate risks to our community and develop actions we can take as an organization to support community resiliency to extreme weather and climate events.”

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The Climate Adaption Strategy and Action Plan survey is live and will be open until June 26, 2023, on the Get Involved Lethbridge website.

L to R: Kathleen Sheppard and Raene Barber announce Environment Week activites in the Lethbridge river bottom on June 2, 2023. (Photo: LNN)

To celebrate Environment Week in Lethbridge this year, several free activities will be taking place around the city to encourage people to get outside, take a more sustainable approach to life, and promote a clean and green future. Environment Lethbridge has a myriad of events planned.

These include an Indigenous plant walk in the coulees on Tuesday, June 6, a tour of the Waste and Recycling Centre on Wednesday, June 7, a free compost event taking place in the CASA parking lot on Thursday, June 8, and Nature Play Fest taking over Henderson Lake on Saturday, June 10.

A bike to work week initiative is also encouraging residents to hop on their two-wheelers and cruise to the office instead of using their cars. Those taking part are encouraged to take a picture and post it on social media with the hashtag #biketoworkyql.

Kathleen Sheppard, Executive Director of Environment Lethbridge explained, “Environment Week is really an opportunity for everyone in Lethbridge to learn about and take action to protect our environment, and I really want to commend the City of Lethbridge for launching their Climate Adaption Strategy and Action Plan. It’s very exciting to see Lethbridge move forward on that initiative.”

“I also want to give a shout out to the environment club at Chinook High School, who has designed their own environment week activities for this week,” said Sheppard.

“They would like to issue challenges to other students and schools across the city to engage in those activities in their schools as well.”

The Lethbridge river bottom is in full bloom during Environment Week. (Photo: LNN)

Sheppard added that people who might not be able to take part in this year’s events can still contribute to Environment Week by signing up for the ‘1,000 Trees in 2023’ program.

The Helen Schuler Nature Centre is looking for people who are interested in planting a tree to join the pledge that would see hundreds of trees planted over the next year.

Paige Rosner, Environment Educational Program Coordinator at the Helen Schuler Nature Centre said, “This year, we’re hoping to see 1,000 trees planted across the city by residents. The big trees we enjoy today were planted many years ago by residents just like us. We want residents to plant a tree, register it with our tree registry and help us reach this goal.”

A tree guide is available on the Helen Schuler Nature Centre website that can help locals decide what trees are ideally suited to the southern Alberta climate.

A full list of events taking place during Environment Week can be found at the Environment Lethbridge website.

READ MORE: Lethbridge News Now.

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