The Greater Victoria Green Team spent the day engaging community members and 115 youth from Shoreline Middle School. We primarily removed English Ivy, the invasive species have been crowding and shading out the native understory and threatens the trees growing in this beautiful forest! English Ivy can grow up to 9 feet in a year, and can grow up to 40 ft vertically on a tree or building! The plant spreads by propagation, so if a stem fragment finds soil, a new section of ivy can grow. Seeds are also spread by seeds by birds! By removing the invasive plants, we are helping the native vegetation regenerate. Some of the native species we saw in the area were Oregon Grape, Trailing Blackberry and Snowberry!

THANK YOU

Thank-you to all of the classes and teachers for participating, Wanda and Cathie, and Chris for helping to facilitate this activity!

Thank-you very much to the Town of View Royal for partnering with us and contributing to our Green Team activities and for recognizing the importance of collaboration in community engagement and ecological restoration!

Group Photos!

Highlights

• In total 115 youth and 2 community members participated and contributed to 133 volunteer hours!
• 25 volunteers were introduced to Portage Park, and 25 volunteers had never removed invasive species before!
• We removed 6 cubic metres of invasive plants!
• Our longest ivy vine that the youth removed was 24ft long!

Before and After Photos

This activity not only benefitted the environment, but also the participants themselves. By being out in nature doing something positive as a team, our community members:

• Develop a sense of belonging to community and place
• Have improved mental and physical health
• Connect to nature, which leads to environmentally responsible behaviour
• Learn about local environmental issues and actions they can take
• Learn the value of bringing together people to work towards a common goal
• Become leaders in their communities
• Increase confidence, resilience and perseverance

Action Shots