Natural Environment

Dalhousie is situated on some 79 acres of land.

The campus has been transformed rapidly over the last century. Currently, much of the campus is paved or occupied by buildings, with the remaining green areas covered non-native trees, shrubs, grasses and herbaceous plants.

The traditional forest would have been comprised of a mix of hardwoods and softwoods, including white and yellow birch, red oak, white and red spruce, eastern hemlock and silver maple.

There are several significant sites in terms of Dalhousie’s outdoor spaces:

• Oak Grove, located between Sherriff Hall and the Life Sciences Centre, includes one of the oldest trees on campus.
  
• In 1997, Ocean Pond was created on a naturally occurring wet area on the campus, providing an on-campus ecosystem for biology students to learn from.
  
• Groups such as the Women’s Centre and NSPIRG tend to organic gardens on campus. Dalhousie long ago eliminated the use of pesticides in its campus landscaping activities and rarely is irrigation used on campus grounds.

The Office of Sustainability has recently completed a natural environment inventory. This data is being used to help develop a natural environment plan to be released in 2011.