On Thursday April 22nd, 2021 the Greater Victoria Green Team joined forces with the Township of Esquimalt and welcomed grade 11 & 12 students from Stelly’s Secondary School to celebrate and mark Earth Day. The students broke up into groups of 4 or 5 with each group being assigned a different task. Three groups went to various parts of the park to remove invasive plants, one group went to build a trail, while the last group planted a big Garry Oak and other various native trees and plants. The students were hard workers – getting a ton of invasive plants removed (not literally, of course!), the trail built in less than two hours and all the plants in the ground with time to spare! About mid way through the event we broke for cookies, fruit and Bubbly before returning to finish what we set out to do!
THANK YOU
A big thank you to Stelly’s Secondary School and Esquimalt Park Staff for your hard work and collaboration!
A Photo Album from the day is found here!
Group Photo
Highlights
- We removed over 8 cubic metres of invasive plants, planted 50 shrubs, 20 trees, built 15 metres of a new trail, totalling over 70 volunteer hours!
- In total 40 students came together to help restore the park!
- More than 30 people were introduced to the park and 35 had never removed invasive plants or planted before!
Testimonials
I had a great time & a ton of fun – this is a way better way to celebrate Earth Day than being stuck in class!
I thought I knew a lot about native plants until I came today and learnt from the park staff – they’re so knowledgable!
I’ll definitely come back and check on the Garry Oak I planted to make sure it’s doing ok!
This program is a cool way to teach people about the local parks and areas that they might never come to! I didn’t even know this park existed.
