Thank you so much Greater Victoria Green Team participants for your hard work and enthusiasm:
Adam, Adrienne, Alicia, Allison, Ben, Chloe, Derik, Eric, Grey, Harmony, Janice, Jasdeep, Jenny, Julie, Lucas, Maria, Mark, Mike, Otone, and Travis!
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
- 23 community members engaged
- 70 hours contributed to habitat restoration
- 5 people removed invasive plants for the first time
- 9 people planted trees for the first time
- 10 people visited Colwood Creek Park for the first time
- 2.7 cubic metres (about 17 bathtubs full) of invasive Himalayan blackberry removed
- 70 native shrubs & trees planted
- 150 square metres of habitat revitalized
Highlights
- We spent the day removing invasive Himalayan blackberry plants from the edges of Colwood Creek Park!
- Once the invasive blackberry plants had been removed we planted native shrubs and trees such as vine maple, pacific ninebark, hardhack, big leaf maple, and alder.
- It was a beautiful spring day and we had a lot of fun connecting with one another in this beautiful park!
- Many dog walkers and locals enjoying the park were impressed with the restoration and thanked us for our efforts. It was a great way to engage with the wider community!
- Habitat restoration is a very satisfying and empowering aspect of environmental stewardship in which to involve the local community and is a great way to connect people with neighbours and new friends.
- For many people this was their first time planting trees / shrubs and was a very rewarding experience to see the restoration of this park.
- Many community members joined us from the neighbourhood residences, enjoying the satisfaction of cleaning up a park they see all the time that is practically in their backyards!
- It was great to have a mix of first timers, newcomers to the community and local longtime residents together! Everyone learned more about local native and invasive species together as a community!
- Everyone loved the timbits, fresh fruit and veggies, nuts,gummies, and granola bars to help keep energy levels up!
- Community members demonstrated a high level of engagement, ambition, and enthusiasm regarding the impact of the invasive species removal efforts.
- It was so rewarding to return to this site again as we have been running many invasive plant removal activities here. We checked on the native shrubs we planted here last spring during Earth Day and it was great to see so many of them thriving!
What Community Members are Saying
Community Investment Partner
We sincerely thank the City of Colwood for providing funding and their ecological expertise and guidance for this activity.
We thank Colwood Parks Manager Gord for ordering and coordinating delivery of the native plants as well. Thank you for making this fun and rewarding activity possible!
Together we are creating opportunities for community members to come together, connect with each other and nature, and take care of the environment!
In-Kind Support
A big thank you to our in-kind supporters: Tru Earth, Earth Rated, and Post It for providing their eco-friendly products for community members to take home!
Participants enjoyed Tru Earth’s plastic-free eco-friendly laundry detergent strips, Earth Rated’s recycled dog poop bags, and Post It’s sticky notes.
These Canadian businesses have wonderful, sustainable products that support more responsible consumer choices!
If you’re interested in contributing in-kind or have ideas for potential partnerships, please contact Kaitlin. Your support makes a difference!
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 was Jace’s first time leading an activity and he was supported by Kaitlin, future Greater Victoria Green Team Partnerships Manager, and Ashton, Lower Mainland 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!
