Thank you to Ms. Arsenault and Ms. Jones and their grade 6 students for participating in this activity with such wonderful enthusiasm!
What a fun day we had connecting people to one another and nature, all while restoring habitat! Keep on reading to find impacts, highlights and more from the day…
Impacts
- 50 students, 2 teachers, and 2 teacher aides joined us to remove invasive plants and help improve the health of this beautiful park
- 102 hours contributed to habitat restoration
- 2.7 cubic metres (approximately 17 bathtubs!) of invasive Himalayan blackberry was removed
- 200 square metres of habitat revitalized
- Countless smiles, laughter, and cheers of accomplishment were shared
Highlights
- Students from Dunsmuir Middle School walked down from their school to take part in this ecological restoration activity and used their knowledge, skills, and determination to remove invasive species!
- It was a day filled with great teamwork and lots of fun exploring nature!
- Students enjoyed working together in teams to dig out stubborn blackberry roots and discovering all the funky shapes that the roots form.
- It was a very rewarding day to save trees in the historic orchard by removing the invasive plants encroaching on them.
- Students enjoyed participating in a hands-on outdoor activity, applying their practical knowledge in a hands-on setting!
- We have been to this site for many years and it’s great to see our hard work paying off with many areas cleared of invasive species! It is a great opportunity for the students to be able to see this long-term restoration and be a part of helping their community!
- It has been great to be able to engage students at this school on an annual basis, so they can see the progress as they return to the area year after year! We are so grateful for our long term partnership with the City of Colwood for making these activities possible!
Community Investment Partner
THANK YOU to the City of Colwood for providing funding, direction, and ecological expertise to guide this activity!
Together we are achieving our common goals and creating connected, healthy and resilient communities engaged in environmental stewardship.
This was the first of several youth engagement activities that will be run in partnership between Greater Victoria Green Team and City of Colwood in 2025. We are grateful for the opportunities that these activities provide youth throughout the city.
Why We Do This Work
The Greater Victoria Green Team organizes hands-on educational activities that have a positive environmental impact to empower people. Through activities such as invasive plant removals, plantings, litter cleanups and more, we are fostering connections with others and nature so that health and well-being is prioritized, lifelong environmental stewardship is promoted, and community members are enabled to take care of themselves, each other and the places they live. We all have the power to make a difference!
We all experience mental and physical health benefits from spending time in nature, including reduced stress and anxiety, and improved mood, focus, memory and more. While doing so, we can also have a positive impact on the environment as demonstrated through this activity!
Staff Who Made This Activity Possible
Our staff work hard to run high-quality community activities. Outreach, activity logistics, social media, reporting on impacts, partnership building and more – they do it all!
This activity was run by Greater Victoria Green Team’s new Program Manager, Jace. This activity was supported by Kaitlin, future Greater Victoria Green Team Partnerships Manager.
Lyda , our Founder and Executive Director who works hard behind the scenes to run and grow our charity, also supported this activity behind the scenes!
