The Planning Process

The project commenced in full in January 2005. LifeCycles and Common Ground met with all participating communities to review the project plans and engage the planning and mapping process. Each community helped develop community agreements regarding long-term care of the fruit trees and assigned community representatives who would be the primary contacts and coordinators. Michael Cowan, our Good Fruit Trainer, was hired and assisted with site walk-abouts, planting requirements and space and location issues. Working with the Good Fruit Trainer, LifeCycles developed a comprehensive list of fruit trees and bushes suitable for this bio-region; all tree/bush sourcing came from local nurseries specializing in organic care or native plants. Each community selected fruit tree and bush varieties from this list.

During this planning phase, it became evident that the process of site selection and permission to plant was going to be lengthy. Community Coordinators needed to: meet with their community; list potential sites; work with land owners to agree to fruit tree plantings, and; organize volunteers. Additionally there is a small window of time for spring plantings. Many community leaders decided to use the spring months and the time available to engage the community in the process fully and to delay the planting of their trees/bushes until October 2005. This gave them a sufficient amount of time to research potential green areas open to the community that would be suitable for fruit trees.