Thank you so much Greater Victoria Green Team participants for your hard work and enthusiasm:
Adam, Alison, Betty, Cassandra, Chloe, Chris, Doug, Elliott, Erdong, Hachi, Jieun, Josiah, Julia, Karen, Laura, Liz, Otone, Patrick, Poyraz, Shea, Soug, Susan, Steve, Thadd, Tristan M., Tristan N., and Yitang!
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
- 29 community members engaged
- 93 hours contributed to habitat restoration
- 9 people removed invasive plants for the first time
- 12 people visited Uplands Park for the first time
- 9 cubic metres (about 56 bathtubs full) of invasive plants and dead wood debris removed
- 100 square metres of forest revitalized
Highlights
- We spent the day removing invasive English ivy and invasive daphne plants from Uplands Park near Beach Drive.
- It was a gorgeous spring day full of sunshine and blue skies! The perfect weather for being outside and removing invasive plants.
- The Camas were in bloom for this activity, a most beautiful time to visit Uplands Park!
- We built on the amazing efforts of Margaret and the Friends of Uplands Park Society, who joined us and shared her expertise and the restoration progress in the park.
- Community member Yitang arrived early and helped us with set up: thank you for your extra help!
- Laura from Victoria Master Gardeners joined us!
- A number of participants used active transportation and walked or biked to this activity. It was a lot of fun to connect many Oak Bay neighbours as well as community members from all over the region together!
- Tristan and Tristan became a dynamic duo tackling large amounts of Daphne!
- All community members embraced becoming one with nature, as we stepped into and crouched beneath shrubs to remove invasive plants from Garry Oak trees and shrubs that weren’t easily visible – making a huge impact on this park!
- Many Garry Oak trees were freed from ivy vines climbing up their trunks and threatening their health!
- Long and large ivy vines became the perfect skipping ropes! Check out the videos of community members skipping rope with ivy vines here.
- 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.
- Listen to Laura talking about her experience of the day here
- Listen to Erdong sharing his experience with our Greater Victoria Green Team here
- Everyone loved the homemade rice crisy squares, fresh fruit and veggies, nuts, and granola bars, gummies, and juice to help keep energy levels up!
- Community members and passersby enjoyed the additional education provided by our plant signs, learning about identification in a fun, creative way!
What Community Members are Saying
Community Investment Partner & Collaborator
A huge THANK YOU to the District of Oak Bay for partnering with our charity, Green Teams of Canada, and making this activity possible with their financial support and direction!
Thank you to Chris, Manager of Parks for the District of Oak Bay for joining this activity to welcome us all into the park and share kind words of appreciation with everyone.
This was the first of two partnership activities we are running together this year!
Together we are achieving our common goals and creating connected, healthy and resilient communities engaged in environmental stewardship.
Thank you to the Friends of Uplands Park Society and in particular, Margaret, for collaborating with us and facilitating this activity!
Th Friends of Uplands Park Society has been leading stewardship initiatives in the park for over 30 years! They lead regular invasive plant removal activities with their No Ivy League. To learn more and get involved, check out their website, Facebook and Instagram pages.
In-Kind Support
A big thank you to our in-kind supporters: Tru Earth, Earth Rated, and Post It for providing their products to our community participants to take home.
Participants enjoyed taking home Tru Earth’s plastic-free laundry detergent strips, Earth Rated’s compostable dog waste bags, and Post It’s sticky notes!
These 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 special guest star Ashton, the Lower Mainland Green Team Partnership Manager, and supported by Greater Victoria Green Team’s new Program Manager, Jace and Kaitlin, future Greater Victoria Green Team Partnerships Manager.
Lyda Salatian, our Founder and Executive Director who works hard behind the scenes to run and grow our charity, also supported this activity behind the scenes!
