- Space for Life, Jardin botanique
This year, as part of the Jardin botanique de Montréal’s Great Gardening Weekend, the prestigious Henry Teuscher Award is being presented to Pierre Dénommé. For 30 years, the founder and executive director of Sentier Urbain has contributed to making Montréal a greener, more biodiverse and healthful city through an approach of inclusive citizen participation.
The man who greened Montréal
A precursor of the socioecological transition, Pierre Dénommé has concerned himself with bringing humans closer to nature by way of three areas of intervention: rallying, educating and greening. He has worked towards the renaturalization of abandoned land in a downtown struggling with social issues by bringing together citizens, organizations and marginalized populations. Grouped under the name Circuit jardins, these eight thematic gardens give green spaces back to Montrealers and contribute to increasing urban biodiversity with plants, birds and butterflies. Pierre Dénommé also has left his mark in his native Témiscamingue, where he founded the Becs et Jardins interpretation center.
Since 1999, the Henry Teuscher Award has been presented annually to a person whose work has contributed in a meaningful way to the advancement of horticulture in Québec.
