Oasis Forest: The Forest Garden
Restoration & Stormwater Research
Rudbeckia Hirta
Understory
Groundcover
Flowering Meadow
Reimagine Your Space with Tropos
Purpose
Oasis Forest
Environmental Artwork
Your Place
What You Can Do
You can restore habitat around century trees. We've designed a custom restoration package to help Monument Trees thrive in your space. Loving your space is worth the effort. Discover the latest research on environmental restoration, like the new seasonal plan. Join as a member for exclusive updates on best practice.
The program is tailored for residents in Hamilton, but it's designed for anyone living in the Carolinian Life Zone, including much of the Eastern United States.
Resources
Your Place
Present
Environmental Artwork
Vision
Oasis Forest: The Forest Garden
We've designed this program to make good quality design and restoration available to people at a range of scales. This exclusive, self-paced resource is built for homeowners and local groups who want to create their own native garden or restore habitat around heritage trees, but aren't sure where to start.
Custom Restoration
Present
Environmental Artwork
Your Place
Helping You Create Beautiful, Functional Spaces
This custom experience is designed to fit your lifestyle and unique space. The Easy-to-Follow strategy keeps things tidy as the season progresses. It includes professional solutions, systems for maintenance, a professional plan to learn how to build your own garden, bioregional basics and tailored research on companion species to restore biodiversity.
Urban scale restoration
Urban Restoration Strategy
Be a Part of Something Bigger
In this century, relying on conservation land alone to reduce carbon emissions is not enough to meet a city's climate targets. Our research goes beyond boundaries of 'city' and 'forest' to reimagine conservation as an interconnected series of forest islands, or "forests oases" throughout the city.
The Monument Tree Database shows that many Monument Trees are growing on private property. At Tropos we believe that homeowners can make a significant difference in helping cities reach their climate targets. We are committed to advancing ecological knowledge through making the latest research and best practices available.
Private citizens make up more than 60% of the stewardship of Monument Trees in Hamilton. Restoring biodiversity around historic trees is the best way to increase the longevity of these resilient native species.
Stewardship
Hamilton City Magazine
TVO
"Beautiful, monumental, and magnificent’: Meet Hamilton’s oldest trees"
Downtown Sparrow
"What Coexisting with Urban Trees Can Teach Us About Our City"
CBC Hamilton
"Meet the woman searching for the oldest trees in Hamilton"
Hamilton's Heritage Landscapes -
Monument Trees of Hamilton - Online Exhibition
Mapping the Invisible -
How do trees propagate? In the city, it is easy to forget about the important role seeds play in the forest. Seeds are our quiet companions in the city. We rake them up, drop maple keys and watch them spin and pull them from cracks in the sidewalk when they become a nuisance.
The Learning Guide is co-produced with the Department of Tourism and Culture with the City of Hamilton and Tropos. This educational resource for local teachers will help students learn about the urban forest in Hamilton. As part of the Stewardship program established through our work at Tropos, the Learning Guide introduces the core concepts of our work to kids through a series of creative activities: identifying, collecting, and protecting.
Click on the link below to download a copy for your classroom.
Are you interested in becoming a neighbourhood forest steward? Are you passionate about the trees in your community and want to make a difference?
Give us a shout at the link below:
Author and Artist - Lesia Mokrycke
Sponsor - We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts / Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien
Studio Assistants - Mae Garcia, Alex Li, Sophie Williams
Indigenous Specialist - Paul General, Former Head of Six Nations Eco-Centre
Special Thanks - Cathy Plotz at Hamilton Conservation Authority; Kathy Renwald with CBC Hamilton; the Hamilton Municipal Heritage Committee, City of Hamilton Culture and Heritage Department; Hamilton Culture & Tourism / Hamilton Civic Museums; McMaster University, Dept of History; CFMU; CityLAB; University of Toronto, Dept of Environment; Rebecca Rathbone; Hamilton City Magazine; Downtown AM Rotary Club of Hamilton; Our Forest; Downtown Sparrow; Justin Chandler at TVO; Hamilton Naturalists Club; Education department at RBG; Friends of Auchmar, and each member of the Hamilton community who has contributed a tree to this project.
