Invasive Species Removal at UVic Queenswood Campus, January 28, 2023!
The Greater Victoria Green Team spent the day engaging 45 community members from all over the Greater Victoria region to remove invasive English ivy, Daphne, English holly, and other invasive plants at UVic’s Queenswood Campus! This was our 8th visit to this location.
Group Photo!
Highlights
- In total 45 community members participated and contributed 128 volunteer hours!
- We removed 22 cubic metres of invasive plants (equivalent to the volume of 137 bathtubs!) and revitalized about 740 square metres of the forest!
- We removed about 20 pounds of garbage!
- 27 community members were introduced to this location for the very first time!
- 21 people learned about and removed invasive plants for the very first time!
- 11 University of Victoria students participated!
THANK YOU
Thank you to everyone for participating: Tiffany, Hayato, Jennifer, Maggie, Crystal, Chloe, Ehsan, Annie, Trystan, Brittany, Herman, David, Kiran, Tom, Yining, Ashley Joyce, John, Liz, Logan, Leonardo, Alessandro, Chen, Shambu, Peter, Blythe, Ella, Haruki, Sarah, Josie, Wren, Rowan, Maya, Kai, Daniel, John, Kennedy, Marianne, Rob, Kiersten, Zahra, Alison, Alex, Emma-Jeanne, and Benjamin!
Thank-you very much to the UVic office of Campus Planning and Sustainability for partnering with us and contributing to our Green Team activities! Thank you for recognizing the importance of collaboration in community engagement and ecological restoration!
Invasive species like English Ivy, Daphne, English Holly and Himalayan Blackberry have been crowding and shading out the native understory and threatening the trees growing on Queenswood Campus. Ivy can smother trees by competing with them for nutrients and light, which makes the trees weaker and more susceptible to fall. This is the Greater Victoria Green Team’s 8th visit to Queenswood Campus, and the difference we’ve made is truly inspiring! Native species like Trailing Blackberry and Oregon Grape are starting to grow in places that used to be covered in ivy.
Equally inspiring is seeing just how many people come out to tackle invasive species in this forest! Community members of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds came together on Saturday to connect with each other and with nature. It is truly amazing to see so many people working together towards a goal, all while having fun and making new friends!
Before… and After!
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 loved learning about some of our most common invasive plant species and how to tackle removing them effectively. It was awesome! It’s great to learn about preserving our ecological environment in such a positive way with such lovely people around. It has a great impact on our local parks etc and also on the individual volunteering because it is so fun!
– Maggie
It gives an amazing opportunity for people to get some fresh air outside, contribute to a great environmental initiative, and meet new people!
– Josie
[I enjoyed] being outdoors, seeing the huge pile of invasive plants that the group picked, meeting new people. [This program] puts us in touch with the earth and how we need to take care of it. Building community….love meeting the other participants. This program is so worthwhile to provide opportunities to reclaim areas that have been invaded by human activity to restore what we can to its natural state.
– Blythe
[The impacts of this program are] improved mental and physical health for me, increased sense of purpose and fulfillment, improved local communities and environment, social connections and relationships.
– Chen
Thanks for organizing!
– Alex
Community In Action!
Thank you to these fantastic local eco-friendly businesses: Earth Rated, Tru Earth, and LUSH that have donated In-kind products for our hard-working community members to take home!
Our community members took home a thank you gift from one of our in-kind supporters! If you have any suggestions for sustainable/eco-friendly rewards, know of or own a business who would like to provide in-kind to our Green Team, please contact Maria or Kaitlin at maria@greenteamscanada.ca or kaitlin@greenteamscanada.ca
