The group of Winnipeg students working to replant a local forest

Winnipeg students are planting more than 1,700 trees in Dakota Park to help grow the city’s tree canopy.

A group of Winnipeg students is helping to grow the city’s urban forest.

On Tuesday, students from Collège Jeanne-Sauvé teamed up with the City of Winnipeg’s Naturalist Services branch to plant trees at Dakota Park.

Their goal is to plant 1,700 trees from now until Friday to help repopulate the forest by the school and improve local biodiversity.

“[The students] are some of our best volunteers and most enthusiastic volunteers,” said Cameron Ruml, wildlife and habitat stewardship biologist at the City of Winnipeg.

“We’ve partnered with other high schools throughout the city as well, and they bring out the biggest groups, and they have a lot of energy, and they get a lot of trees in the ground.”

The students are planting tree and shrub species native to Manitoba, including poplar, American elm, and silver maple.

Ruml said it’s important to plant a variety of species as it creates a better-quality habitat.

“If you plant one type of tree, for example, it could get a disease that wipes them all out,” he said.

“If you have multiple different species, there’s a better chance that many of them will survive, and it’s just a more diverse ecosystem is a stronger ecosystem.”

The partnership began in 2024 when a student group at the high school reached out to the city and helped to plant over 2,000 trees.