For a city that makes its living off of the forestry industry, it's not surprising to be surrounded by green.
But within the urban areas it's a different story - at least at first glance.
Like many cities, the most densely populated and active areas of Prince George are something of a concrete jungle. But individuals and groups within the city are working to create small oases to break up the gray as well as take advantage of spots already available.
"This is a city with a fair amount of trees in and around it. It's important we draw in as much as we can to keep that natural feeling," said Jackie Pement, chair of Enhance PG.
For the past few years, Enhance PG has taken over and expanded on the city's award-winning Communities in Bloom. The volunteer organization is committed to fostering civic pride, environmental awareness and municipal beautification through community partnerships.
With $10,000 per year to administer, the group has become adept at hooking groups up with other organizations and resources to stretch those enhancement dollars and make spaces around Prince George more welcoming.
"I would like to see more of those spaces as a gathering place," Pement said.
One of the partnerships Enhance PG has fostered is with Growing Community Gardens (GCG), a two-year-old joint project between the Prince George Christian Reformed Church, the University of Northern British Columbia and the Prince George Public Interest Research Group. Based out of its Willow Street property, organizers see it as a place to not only grow food, but also grow a community.
"Community gardens generally have a food component, but ours is not just about food," said Scott Green, a UNBC ecologist and GCG committee chair. Green said the garden grew out of conversations like-minded people had about food and community in a larger social context.
By locating the 24-plot garden in a neighbourhood where there was a diverse cross-section of residents with special needs, who were low income or seniors "we have this diverse community of people coming into the community garden and connecting for different reasons," Green said.
He added the majority of the plots are occupied by people who live within two or three blocks of the church.
The garden has given these residents an opportunity to truly become neighbours.
"Some of the best gardeners are seniors who grew up growing food," said Green, explaining the opportunity for them to pass on that knowledge has been a real transforming experience for young people.
"It's really about connecting people to this place we call Prince George," Green said, "but also about connecting people to each other."
Like many social experiments, most of the results are not formally documented.
"There hasn't been a huge amount of academic studies [on the benefits of urban spaces]," said UNBC environmental studies associate professor Annie Booth.
But she said city planners have been looking at taking over abandoned areas and transforming them into community space in larger metropolitans like New York City and Chicago.
"If you reclaim urban space and do it in a community fashion... it turns out to be fairly effective in bringing people together," Booth said.
The amount of people who get involved in projects such as community gardening allows for reintegrating a society that has become segmented by age, she added.
One of Enhance PG's projects was to help Knox United Church spruce up their 5th Avenue property. The property has been landscaped to make the space inviting in an otherwise dreary location.
"The fact they added a bench is important. A big issue with urban space is you have to give people a place to sit," Pement said of the piece of furniture facing the garden, not the street.
"If you look around, you see a lot of concrete," she added, but explained it's not necessarily a bad thing.
A few blocks from the church, the Activity Centre for Empowerment (ACE) - serving individuals with mental illnesses or addictions - has taken a cement slab outside of their building and made it something special.
With vine-covered arched entrances, potted plants and table and chairs marked by a simple chain border, ACE has come up with something easy to maintain, said Pement.
Not only does it give the centre someplace for its clients to enjoy lunch, but also anyone passing through looking for a place to take a load off near city hall.
"It's open, it's part of the street," Pement said. "It's different from the lawn concept, but there's still a greenness to it."
But despite the proven or perceived benefits of reclaiming urban land for community use, Booth said the problem lies with finding suitable land to reclaim.
"When you reclaim abandoned land, you run into problems with contaminated soil," she said. "In Prince George, it's not as easy as sliding a seed in the ground."
These are issues that could potentially be avoided if these types of spaces are planned for during the development stage.
"If you plan for it, you're not quite as worried about a contaminated site," Booth said, noting when subdivisions are being planned, perhaps there should be shift away from empty grass fields to something functional.
"A lawn is basically a green desert... it sucks up water and nutrients."
But even if the city were to make provisions for such spaces, it has to be something desired by the community, said Pement, who personally believes the drive has to come from a group of people who see a need in order to make that change.
"It's not really an easy thing to plan, in terms of policy," added Green, whose comments were echoed by the Enhance PG chair.
"The city only has so much money in the budget for parks and staff. If it takes on something like [a community space] it has to maintain it," she said.
That maintenance is vital since the space won't get used for its intended purpose if it's not kept clean and safe.
"It's got to be wanted," Pement said. "City policies have to be about what the city can do to help people obtain their goal."
As important as it is to create those spaces, it's also important to make sure they're user friendly.
At the Growing Community Gardens, there is no fence around the property, which Green explained is to make it seem accessible.
"We wanted it to be a place where people feel they can come," he said.
With that element of openness and community established, the garden has had only limited vandalism, which was dealt with by supporting the gardener by bringing her new materials, a helping hand and someone to talk to.
"We let her know we're in this with her," Green said. "And that's exactly the type of community we're trying to promote here in this project."
