Invasive Himalayan Blackberry Removal at Colwood Creek Park

July 5, 2025

Thank you so much Greater Victoria Green Team participants for your hard work and enthusiasm:

Allison, Amit, Anju, Artemiz, Benito, Blenda, Bryan, Burin, Charlotte, Chloe, Chris J., Chris S., Dayarah, Hans Josef, Hiromi, Ilman, Israel, Jenny, Jorge, Judy, Karen, Karl, Kaden, Kim, Larissa, Leonardo, Lisa, Mark K., Mark W., Mason, Rachel, Ruchika, Sarah, Shakya & Tristan

We had a BLAST connecting with each other and to nature, all while restoring habitat! Keep on reading to find impacts, highlights and more from the day…

Impacts

36 community members engaged
117 hours contributed to habitat restoration
14 people removed invasive plants for the first time
23 people visited Colwood Creek Park for the first time
17 cubic metres (about 106 bathtubs full) of invasive Himalayan blackberry removed

Highlights

It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a lot of fun connecting with one another in this beautiful park!
It was a great mix of experienced participants, first timers and newcomers (some of whom were from Brazil, Nepal, Iran and Mexico)
Many dog walkers and locals enjoying the park were impressed with the restoration and thanked us for our efforts. Some even expressed interest in joining us next time!
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 participating in habitat restoration. For others, it was exciting to return to this park which has been under active restoration for several years. It has been a rewarding experience to see the transformation of this park over time through community efforts.
Everyone loved the one bite brownies, pineapple, mandarins, veggie platter, veggie chips, lemon cake, granola bars and juices to help keep energy levels up!
Thank you you Chris S. for coming early to help set up first thing in the morning
Thank you to Judy and Blenda for helping set up a snack table
Big thank you to EVERYONE (especially Chris) for helping pack up our cargo van
WELL DONE Chris J. for digging up the BIGGEST blackberry crown (enjoy that water bottle – a well deserved prize!)
Community members worked really hard and dug up a lot of root crowns and made a HUGE difference in the riparian zone ecosystem in this park.

What Community Members are Saying

"This activity gave me the opportunity to connect with people who share the same goal of doing something good for the community. I truly believe that these connections — along with today’s success in removing invasive plants — will lead to even bigger impacts in the future."

"Enjoyed everything specially the way all helped each others. The host motivated and appreciated everyone for their work."

"This kind of activities are REALLY important in my opinion for the environment of course, fauna and flora, but also for creating community engagement. In my opinion, even when we do not know each other, just seeing that there are others that also want to make a positive change in their community and environment is very encouraging and give us hope. Also it generates more acceptance or tolerance among ourselves, it is all positive. The impact goes all the way through the people who was just passing by, the kids, the good vibes generated and example provided by volunteering activities is beyond removing an invasive plant.It was also very nice to see a many people from other countries, immigrants like me, showing that we really want to contribute to a better community sense/ambient and place wherever we are."

"It was a great event, great energy and people!"

"Such drives have great impact on environment & also are important for your coming generations to have heathy environment"

Community Investment Partner

We sincerely thank the City of Colwood for providing funding and their ecological expertise and guidance for this activity.

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 supporter LUSH for providing their eco-friendly personal care products for community members to take home!

Participants enjoyed taking home bath bombs, body wash, and lotions in recycled and reusable containers.

This Canadian business has 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, Heather, This was Heather’s first time leading an activity and she was supported by Aaliyah our new Program Assistant!

Interim Partnerships Manager, Kaitlin, who works hard behind the scenes to run and grow our Greater Victoria Green Team, also supported this activity behind the scenes!