Tuesday, May 22, 2012

District of North Vanouver Partnered with Community Association to Build Tree Canopy Climate Stations



Pre-Fabrication of Monitoring Stations
In 2006 - 2007, the District of North Vancouver partnered with ARC Woodworking Services, a division of the former North Shore Association for the Mentally Handicapped (now known as the North Shore Connexions Society), to carry out one aspect of a unique rainwater management applied research program. This partnership was featured in an newspaper article published by the North Shore News
 
The partnership was made possible by a grant that the District received from the Real Estate Foundation of BC to advance the state-of-the-practice in rainwater management, specifically the role that trees play in rainwater interception and absorption. 

The program involved placing wooden monitoring stations underneath the canopies of 60 trees to capture and measure rainfall that penetrates the tree canopy. A portion of the grant covered the assembly costs for the monitoring stations. The unique nature of the project equipment, combined with the timing, required the District to look outside for assistance with assembly.

Enter ARC Woodworking Services. ARC provides practical woodworking and warehousing skills to persons with developmental disabilities as well as supporting individuals to have access to gainful employment opportunities in the community.

“The Real Estate Foundation grant is what really allowed us to venture into the community and establish this relationship with ARC Woodworking,” said Richard Boase, the District's Environmental Protection Officer. “We were able to go to ARC Woodworking with a rather unique and weird-looking contraption and they immediately said “Yes we can help you”. They have been great to work with I am sure we will be working together in the future.”

Two participants from the ARC team built 60 stations over a period of several weeks. Shown below is the prototype monitoring station that was installed on the roof of the District Municipal Hall.



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