ABSOLUTELY BREATHTAKING! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? IN THE BEGINNING … there were green leaves ! What makes a leaf green? Chlorophyll, of course, but there are other colours hidden all year! Chlorophyll is PACKAGED in chloroplasts each cell in each green leaf! See them in this magnified image. The leaves
Through much of the 20th century, Canadian children grew up learning about the “firsts” of American and European science and industry—things like the cotton gin, pasteurization, electric motor, the light bulb, or the assembly line. While most baby boomers probably knew about the Canadian development of insulin, time zones, and
View the livestream of the “ACER’s Past-Present-Future” presentation that kicked off ACER’s 2022 Annual General Meeting, held virtually on Sunday, June 26th.
You can download the newsletter in PDF format here: From Our President – Alice Casselman It has been a challenging yet wonderful year! What we have accomplished, under Covid protocols, is really astonishing! Planting trees in Peel schoolyards and Mississauga parks, mulching and measuring in Bramalea, employing Canada Summer Jobs
This Saturday 10/16 at 10 AM, ACER is hosting a tree planting event at Applewood Heights Park in Mississauga! We’ll provide the materials, and COVID safety protocols will be in effect. RSVP today! This event is made possible by the Canada Healthy Communities Initiative grant and our partner, the City
Written by ACER executive board member Elizabeth MacLean, with a tree planting guide by ACER founding president Alice Casselman. Ontario has its own celebrated oak tree. Known as the Heritage Red Oak, the giant tree stands near the edge of the Humber River, in the yard of a house on
Written by ACER executive board member Elizabeth MacLean. “The sky’s the limit,” said Fazal Khan in an August on-line preview presentation of the TreeTrackers.ca website to ACER Board members and friends. He was describing the potential of both the website and its creators, a team of high-school and university students hired by
On June 13, just as COVID-19 restrictions reopened across Ontario ACER, the Association for Canadian Educational Resources, held its Annual General Meeting. The virtual meeting was simulcast on YouTube to a Canada-wide audience of members, Canada Summer Jobs interns, scientists and agency collaborators. Video keynotes from two ACER interns who found career jobs
Click below to view the livestream of our 2021 Annual General Meeting that was held on Sunday, June 13th, 2021:
Part four of ACER’s Where Are They Now? series, a celebration of our wonderful former employees, interns, volunteers, and other folks who have made our work possible. Written by ACER executive board member Elizabeth MacLean. Tyler Orsulak’s career path is looking a little straighter now — diverse strands are weaving together
Part three of ACER’s Where Are They Now? series, a celebration of our wonderful former employees, interns, volunteers, and other folks who have made our work possible. Written by ACER executive board member Elizabeth MacLean. Julia Bilas says she always leaned toward the sciences — she grew up helping her mother
** Update: May 21, 2021 — Internship positions have now been filled. Thank you for your interest! ** ACER (Association for Canadian Educational Resources) is excited to open our application process for summer interns. Positions are available in the Region of Peel. ACER’s research and activities contribute to reaching UN
ACER announces funding of $80,100 from Ontario Trillium foundation under its Ontario Resilient Community Fund. The fund supports the non-profit sector to recover and rebuild from the impacts arising from COVID-19 so they can effectively meet community needs. “This funding comes at a critical moment for ACER, so that we can
With spring upon us, it’s the perfect time to explore our Spring flowers activity suites! Start with our newest addition: our Maple Activity Suite. Check out our other activities for more ways to engage the outdoors. Note: the links above have been updated to reflect the most current version/most relevant
Part two of ACER’s Where Are They Now? series, a celebration of our wonderful former employees, interns, volunteers, and other folks who have made our work possible. Written by ACER executive board member Elizabeth MacLean. It’s more than 10,000 km from his birthplace in Seoul, South Korea to the office in
Part one of ACER’s Where Are They Now? series, a celebration of our wonderful former employees, interns, volunteers, and other folks who have made our work possible. Written by ACER executive board member Elizabeth MacLean. Jason Weiler loves his work as Parks Ecologist in Calgary, where his current project is
Tree Inventory was carried out, under COVID protocols, by 7 students Sheridan College – Davis Campus Brampton in two field teams, each of 3 members and 1 person working remotely. The field teams measured 406 trees (38 species) for analysis and mapping. The Japanese tree Lilac and Silver Maple had
For immediate release: December 18, 2020 Written by Catherine Soplet Project Crossroads can address trifecta of crises: climate change, racism and COVID-19 On December 10 Peel Regional Council heard encouraging ground truth from Brampton’s Knightsbridge residents, who have been hardest hit by COVID‑19. A two-minute video of volunteers’ testimonials opened the
One of Toronto’s oldest tree needs our help. The Red Oak has stood for at least 250 years, if not longer. It is formally recognized by Forest Ontario’s Heritage Tree program. In September 2019, a commemorative plaque was placed next to the tree that reads as follows: “The large red
Andrew Palamarchuk featured ACER in an article about outdoor education in North York during COVID-19. Check out a short excerpt below: Alice Casselman, a retired science teacher and founding president of the Association of Canadian Educational Resources (ACER), said outdoor educators have now been given “a new lease on life.”
ACER thanks Knightsbridge residents for welcoming Project Crossroads trees, to contribute much-needed cooling shade and sustained climate change research into areas hardest-hit by COVID-19 pandemic. On October 29, the final of four community tree plantings was installed with local volunteers on the grounds of Peel Living social housing. Adhering to
On October 17 at Folkstone Park and October 24 at Knightsbridge Kings Cross apartments, local residents in Bramalea will be supported in tree planting for climate change research. “These locations sit in low tree canopy areas, where many residents are really hurting as a result of the COVID pandemic,” says Alice
On October 7, ACER (Association for Canadian Educational Resources) held its inaugural installation of Project Crossroads community tree planting event, for climate change research. Knightsbridge residents of diverse ages and backgrounds were drawn from schools, faith, and community organizations. “We braced against stormy weather today and difficult times over the past 18
We need your help! ACER is hosting Project Crossroads, a series of tree planting events in Brampton made possible with funding from the Arbor Day Foundation.We’re looking for volunteers to join us in Bramalea. We’ve created and field tested COVID-19 planting protocols, which will allows us to beautify the community
“I am very big on birthdays,” says Alice Casselman, Founder and President of the Association for Canadian Educational Resources (ACER). The one-year celebration of the Project Crossroads urban reforestation initiative kicks off with the announcement of a trifecta of community tree plantings in Bramalea Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Plan (SNAP) urban revitalization areas, in
September 2020 – ACER is ready and waiting for back-to-school programs to kick in! In addition to pre-scheduled community tree planting activities and volunteer opportunities for monitoring and maintenance of established school yard tree sites, ACER offers resources on-line at www.acer-acre.ca for distance learning units in Ecology 101 and biology, as well as
August 2020 – on August 6, within one week of Stage 3 reopening for Peel Region that lifted restrictions on group gatherings, nearly 50 reforestation experts, conservation staff and community volunteers gathered at Fleetwood Park in Mississauga, to field test a COVID protocol for community tree planting. “Pinch me!” said
Spring 2020: Spring has sprung, and many flowers are in bloom! While we continue to practice physical distancing to protect ourselves and our neighbours in these strange times, take a digital stroll through the blossoms. Explore our Spring Flowers activities today, perfect for distance learning. Dandelion Suite Crab Apple Suite
We’re looking for volunteers to join Team ACER this summer! We have opportunities available for a wide variety of skillsets. Whether you prefer going out in the field or working from home, you can engage in local action that leads to a global impact. View Volunteer Opportunities
Our University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) intern Julia Bilas has written a report on the importance of trees in the GTA. Julia compared benchmark and more recent measurements from the University of Toronto Mississauga campus, five Mississauga schools and two Brampton schools to see if some species were more successful
2019 has been a fantastic year for ACER. We worked with new partners at the Arab Community Centre of Toronto (ACCT), Parkdale Intercultural Association (PIA), and Working Women Community Centre (WWCC) to teach people how to plant and measure trees. We also planted at Rowntree Mills Park with TRCA and
Join us for Are You Ready? – Impacts of Climate Change in Ontario, a free event featuring climate science experts Heather Auld and Don MacIver. June 9, 2019 at 2 PM Centre for Urban Ecology, Humber College North Campus 205 Humber College Boulevard RSVP today! Be sure to arrive early
On December 7, 2018, ACER hosted a webinar through Conservation Ontario. Representatives from three conservation authorities shared their experiences with our tree planting program, Riparian Rangers. Our speakers were Stephanie Smith from Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Gina Pannunzio from Essex Region Conservation Authority, and Patricia Lowe from Central Lake Ontario
2018 is coming to a close, and the last few days of the year are ideal for reflection. This has been a fantastic year for ACER — new partners, exciting opportunities, and strengthened connections. Take a look at what we’ve been working on in our latest newsletter: ACER’s Fall/Winter 2018 Newsletter
This summer ACER will have 7 interns from Sheridan College; Sneha Gaddipati, Navpreet Kaur, Sandeep Kaur, Asma Khurram, Kartik Makhwana, Mamata Na, and Milan Suther. These interns will continue inventories at two Sheridan College, Davis and Trafalgar campuses. The inventory at the Sheridan College Davis campus was started by previous
This year ACER received 4 grants from the Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund (GLGCF). We are working with Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA), Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA), Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority (CLOCA), and Raisin Region Conservation Authority (RRCA). Each project involves planting a 1000 trees and shrubs with
There are 7 new Planting for Change (P4C) schools in spring and fall of 2017. TD FEF funded the projects, which brought schools and their wider communities together to create mini-climate change outdoor classrooms/labs. The school plants 61 native trees and shrubs and monitors five different indicator species each year
This year ACER received 3 grants from the Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund (GLGCF). We worked with Otonabee Region Conservation Authority (ORCA), Quinte Conservation Authority, and Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority (LTVCA). These projects each involved planting a 1000 trees and shrubs in the spring and fall of 2017 with
ACER developed the Citizen Science (CSI) program with funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF). TD Friend of the Environment Fund funded the implementation of this project. In spring and fall of 2017, CSI was launched at 4 Planting for Change (P4C) schools; John William Boich Public School, Humberview Secondary
City of Mississauga Serson Park Planting and Monitoring On September 23rd, 2017 the City of Mississauga organized a planting at Serson Park in Mississauga for National Forest Week. ACER taught volunteers how to measure 10% of the trees and shrubs being planted. Community Volunteers planted 250 trees and shrubs. ACER
This summer ACER the interns from Sheridan College were Murat Oguzsimsaroglu, Souvik Banerjee, Faria Malik, and Kanna Sivakumar. The University of Toronto Scarborough intern was Bahy Salah. These interns did tree inventories at two Sheridan College campuses. They continued the inventory at the Sheridan College Davis campus started by previous
Join the City of Mississauga and partners at the annual Earth Day tree planting event on Saturday, April 22 at 9:30 a.m. This year, to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday and to kick off the tree planting program for 2017, 150 trees will be planted in each of Mississauga’s 11 wards.
Riparian Rangers ACER worked on three Riparian Rangers projects in 2016; Riparian Rangers Ausable Bayfield, Riparian Rangers rare, Riparian Rangers Lake Simcoe. Planting trees and shrubs along riparian zones can increase bank stability, slow the flow of water to the watercourse which leads to increased infiltration and less erosion. Decreased
