The Greater Victoria Green Team spent the day engaging 43 community members at the UVic’s Queenswood Campus! This is the sixth time the Green Team has visited this location this year.
Returning to the same location multiple times is very important for ecological restoration. There is a very large area of forest at Queenswood—more than the Green Team can tackle in just one day. Also, by returning multiple times, we can remove invasive species that are starting to re-sprout in areas we already cleared, which helps ensure that our efforts are making a difference in the long term. During this activity, we primarily removed English Ivy, Daphne, and English Holly, as well as several other invasive plants. These invasive species have been crowding out the native plants in this forest, and harming the natural ecosystem in the process. Some of the native species we saw in the area were Trailing Blackberry, Oceanspray, Sword Fern, and Oregon Grape—these species will now have more space to grow and the forest will be in balance again!
Thank-you very much to UVic Campus Planning & Sustainabilityfor partnering with us and contributing to our Green Team activities, and for recognizing the importance of collaboration in community engagement and ecological restoration!
In total 43 community members participated and contributed to 135 volunteer hours!
26 volunteers were introduced to Queenswood Campus, while 15 volunteers had never removed invasive species before!
We removed 47 cubic metres of invasive plants and revitalized about 650 square metres of the forest!
21 of our volunteers today were UVic students!
One of our volunteers was a trained arborist and helped us remove some small holly trees!
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
Volunteer Testimonials
“I enjoyed the camaraderie and accomplishment. There’s no question some progress is being made locally against invasive species in these blitzes, but I think more importantly this activity helps to normalize taking individual and collective actions to protect the environment.” – Colin
“I enjoyed that people from different backgrounds, values, religions, and creeds all came together for the same cause.” – Daniel
You need a lot of strength to remove Holly trees!
Action Shots
Thank you to Lush, TruEarth, Green Beaver, & Earth Rated for donating in-kind gifts for our hard-working volunteers to take home!
