The Assiniboine Forest Today

 

The Assiniboine Forest, in Winnipeg Manitoba is one of the largest urban natural forests in Canada. The Forest is a blend of open meadows, wetland areas, ponds, and large swaths of old growth forest. Home to a variety of species of flora and fauna, the forest is open year-round, free of charge. The forest provides a wide range of benefits beyond just the aesthetic, including reducing solar radiation, limiting runoff, absorption of urban noise, modifying air quality, improving human health and providing wildlife habitat. As an environmental carbon sink, the forest can also be useful both in mitigating climate change and helping the city adapt to higher temperatures and other impacts of climate change, such as reducing Winnipeg’s heat island effect. The Forest is 285 hectares of largely undisturbed wilderness and has a total of 18 kilometres of maintained multi-use trails. The forest is well used year-round by walkers, runners, cross country skiers and cyclists of all ages. 

 

Since 1990, the Winnipeg Charleswood Rotary Club has been the custodian of the Forest. Charleswood Rotary has provided more than $600,000 in funding/grants and over 2,000 volunteer labour hours, supporting a variety of Forest projects and initiatives. These include the Assiniboine Forest’s entrance sign, development of the Grant/Chalfont parking lot, the construction of a front gate, the design and construction of the Eve Werier Pond boardwalk.

 

The Club supported a 4-year program controlling thistle growth in the meadows and observation mounds by the pond. The club completed a clean-up of a large municipal waste disposal site, and corrected a compromised natural drainage pattern . Thanks to Club and City of Winnipeg, there is annual funding of the “Green Team”, a two-person team of students is employed during the summer for general forest and trail maintenance. In 2018, Charleswood Rotary transformed 4 shipping containers into a new storage building so that the Green Team could store maintenance equipment.