MONTREAL — Stephen Bronfman recalls a trip to Israel’s Negev desert when he was 19 as being a turning point in his life.

A knowledgeable and passionate park ranger opened his eyes to the wonder of nature and how precious it is.

“I realized I love this. This is exciting, to be immersed in nature, to preserve it, to teach others about it,” he said in an interview. He became an avid outdoorsman, especially enjoying fishing in the wilderness.

Today, Bronfman is offering other young people the opportunity to get turned on by the environment through a program called C-Vert, an initiative of the Stephen R. Bronfman Foundation and its partners.

Bronfman, 43, chairman of the private investment firm Claridge Inc., has been an environmental activist for years, usually working quietly behind the scenes, often with the David Suzuki Foundation, on whose board he has sat for a dozen years.

Through C-Vert, teens aged 14 to 16 from the districts of St. Michel and Côte des Neiges are being trained to become leaders in environmental activism among their peers and in encouraging their neighbours to take pride in their surroundings.

Members of the two groups will get together Feb. 26 to host the first C-Vert youth environment forum, with David Suzuki as keynote speaker. He will talk about the power of youth to protect the environment, and there will be information kiosks on how youth can get involved.

The event is open to all teens between 14 and 17 free of charge. For information, call 737-6551, ext. 320.

C-Vert will officially became the youth wing of the David Suzuki Foundation’s Quebec branch that day.

C-Vert looks for kids who have a serious interest in learning and developing their own ideas on how to make their inner-city neighbourhood greener. They must make a one-year commitment to the after-school program, at the end of which they present an action plan to borough officials.

C-Vert is reaching out to kids from disadvantaged neighbourhoods. North-end St. Michel, where the program was piloted, is one of the poorest districts in Canada. St. Michel and Côte des Neiges, where C-Vert was launched this year, are also multicultural districts and many of the teens come from immigrant homes where the environment is not the highest priority.

They are offered, without cost, a series of nature trips including winter camping at the YMCA’s Camp Kanawana, and meetings with experts on the environment and others from worlds of the arts, business and politics who are concerned with the state of the planet. They will also work as a group on innovative projects near their home, such as improving green spaces, public transit and waste reduction.

In St. Michel, for example, the teens planted trees in the old Miron quarry, gathered used bicycles that were put in working order, promoted the use of recyclable shopping bags and collected 600 signatures on a petition for new bike paths.

Although their 12-month commitment is over, most of the St. Michel teens have continued with the program.

“Many of these kids have never even been outside the city before,” said Bronfman. C-Vert is about giving them new experiences that test abilities they may not know they have.

“We take them out of their comfort zone, and the result is a lot of growth and bonding among them.”

He mentioned a boy from Haiti who went on the winter camping trip. Although his classmates balk at the 40-minute walk to school, he told them he had lived outside for 72 hours in a winter camp, and that such a walk was nothing for him.

The name C-Vert is a play on words in French. Representatives go into schools to introduce the program bringing a folder headed “Ça dérape sévère!” roughly “it’s going downhill fast.” The message is not pessimistic; rather, youth are left with the impression they can do something to stop the slide.

A maximum of 20 students are accepted into each neighbourhood group, and they must apply, go through an interview process, and have their parents’ permission.

The co-ordinator of C-Vert is Michel Séguin who works out of the Claridge offices in Le Windsor. Séguin, founder of the pioneering recycling advocacy group Action-Rebuts, holds a PhD in environmental science.

More than a year of research went into developing C-Vert to ensure that it was not duplicating any other program. No youth program that combines nature experience with urban initiatives over a long period could be found.

In St. Michel, the group’s base is TOHU – Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean visited there –– a circus arts centre with a strong environmental mission.

The Y is the base for the Côte des Neiges group.

Bronfman is trying to get more support from the city of Montreal and the province.

“I’m not a radical; I like to be involved in science-based work and to try to influence government policy,” he explained.

He also promotes environmental awareness among business people. “I try to convince them that energy reduction means cost reduction,” he said.

Bronfman has got their attention by inviting them to private gatherings with such celebrities as Barbra Streisand, Al Gore and the rock group The Police. He is hoping the corporate world will buy into his long-term vision of a corps of teenaged environmental foot-soldiers in every neighbourhood of Montreal.