The Hamilton Stewardship Network is an interactive community greenspace knowledge hub, including a stewardship map, a directory of existing resources, guides, fact sheets, and other tools and resources.
The Hamilton Stewardship Network aims to help volunteers and local residents that are caring for depave gardens, tree planting sites, pollinator patches, raingardens, and restoring woodland, shoreline, and prairie habitats on PUBLIC lands to CONNECT and SHARE resources, know-how, and tools to help create a greener city.
We aim to support and empower:
more residents to participate in naturalization and restoration projects on public property
long-term maintenance, invasive species management, and sustained volunteer engagement
This will help increase biodiversity, improve canopy cover and increase community wellbeing and nature connection in Hamilton.
stew·ard·ship
/ˈst(y)o͞oərdˌSHip/
Noun
The act of taking care of and nurturing nature.
Engaging community members and organizations that are conducting restoration and stewardship on public lands in Hamilton.
Gathering feedback from community members and organizations to further develop the Hamilton Stewardship Network. (See below for a summary of community feedback)
Gathering resources/toolkits from various organizations.
Creating a database of stewardship locations across Hamilton
Recruiting dedicated volunteers to become stewards of the land
Continuing to ask for feedback
For the Hamilton Stewardship Network to be successful, an initial input survey was sent out to our community members and organizations to receive their feedback on what resources to include as part of the Hamilton Stewardship Network, site locations that require stewarding, and plenty more! Below are several main themes seen in the feedback provided:
Most feedback had to do with volunteers. Stewards noted that:
It was difficult to find and maintain volunteers over time.
A section of the Hamilton Stewardship Network should be dedicated to volunteer engagement and coordination.
Removing barriers to volunteering and creating a list of dedicated volunteers for others to access is important.
People also wanted to see a variety of resources included, such as resources related to:
Native and invasive plants
Soils, soil testing, soil restoration and composting
Mulching
Growing from seeds
And more
The Hamilton Stewardship Network continues to ask for your feedback to make the site better! Please submit any ideas you may have using the survey linked here.