Greening the Suburbs

By Helen Falding

Summary

Picture kids in rubber boots netting tadpoles at the edge of a marsh surrounded by the subtle hues and vibrant flowers of tall grass prairie. Meanwhile, songbirds call from the rushes as dragonflies dance and ducks skitter along the surface of the water. This is not your cottage, it’s your backyard – and it could be the future of 21st-century suburbia.

For a growing number of people moving into the newest subdivisions in and around Winnipeg, these scenes are already reality. Wetlands lovingly created by Native Plant Solutions (NPS) – a subsidiary of Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) – are replacing algae-clogged stormwater runoff ponds surrounded by crushed gravel, manicured grass and Canada goose poop. It all started, appropriately enough, when a duck sculpture brought two visionaries together.

Brent Wark is a 30-year veteran of DUC, or “Mother Duck” as he likes to call the organization that has shaped him since he was a young biologist paddling a canoe in southern Manitoba. He’s an expert in planting native grasses to restore wetlands and uplands for duck feeding and nesting sites.

Page 2: Price of commercial native grass went sky-high >>