Oil major’s partnership with city in planting 54,000 trees enters final phase

BY GARY PARK FOR GREENING OF OIL

Reviled and pilloried like few corporations in history, with the prospect of even worse to come, BP found refuge in an unlikely place—a forest in Calgary.

Over the past decade, the oil giant and the City of Calgary have been partners in planting 54,000 trees through a program called BirthPlace—an obvious spin-off from the all-too-recognizable BP acronym—where families plant a tree in honor of a newborn, and just one of those symbolic gestures that has struggled to capture headlines and is now entering its final phase.

But, regardless of BP’s current travails, scores of Calgarians paid tribute to the program on June 13 by turning out for the dedication of a 10-acre stretch along the city’s major freeway, the site of the last planned forest in the program.

What might have been a public relations coup for BP was a moment when the company was forced to admit the obvious—that its Macondo well blowout and leak in the Gulf of Mexico is overshadowing everything else.

A BP spokeswoman admitted the Gulf incident is a “tragedy (that) the industry as a whole will have to learn from.”

However, she insisted BP will not back away from its long history of investing in communities where it operates.

“It’s a huge part of who we are and that will remain the same,” she said.

Russell Friesen, Calgary’s urban forest co-coordinator, said Calgarians should not overlook the fact that BirthPlace is a catalyst in establishing a wildlife refuge in a sprawling metropolis on the Canadian Prairies, where tree-growing is a constant challenge.

Parents have the chance to “adopt” a sapling in the name of their child in hopes of returning years later when the tree has matured.

Cora Sheyka, a graphic designer, has registered her son Mathijs to ensure the eight-month-old has a link with nature as he grows up.

Regardless of the positives, biology teacher Michelle Graves, who brought her infant son Elijah to the event, conceded it was a moment of irony, given events in the Gulf.

“But you have to look at the positives, I suppose,” she said. “Where there are good things happening like this, you have to support them.”

Links of interest

The City of Calgary: BP BirthPlace Forest

Contact Gary Park via publisher@greeningofoil.com