Thank you so much Greater Victoria Green Team participants for your hard work and enthusiasm:
Alicia, Anim, Antonio, Aoxiang, Candela, Cathy, Cheryl, Cindy, Corbin, Daiang, Evan, Graham, Helen, Janice, Jarin, Jasmine, Juliana, June, Kira, Leah, Matthew, Max, Mike, Mitchell, Pablo, Paige, Robyn, Samantha, Shannon, Tesla, Tiffany, & Trey!
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
- 32 community members engaged, including 3 UVic students
- 97 hours contributed to habitat restoration
- 12 people removed invasive plants for the first time
- 11 people visited this area of campus for the first time
- 12cubic metres (about 75 bathtubs full) of invasive plants removed
- 200 square metres of forest revitalized
Highlights
- We spent the day removing invasive English ivy, English holly, and Himalayan blackberry plants from the forest at UVic near the Cunningham building in an area known as Cunningham Woods.
- It was a rainy spring day but that didn’t stop these dedicated community members from getting outside and collaborating as a team to pull those pesky invasive plants out!
- 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.
- We had a lot of fun working together to dig out big blackberry root crowns and searching for the longest ivy vines!
- We played skip rope with a particularly larger ivy vine that was pulled out of the ground! Check out the video on Flickr here
- Community member Pablo helped out with facilitation of this activity and helped take photos of the day! Thank you for your support Pablo!
- Everyone loved the homemade brownies, fresh fruit and veggies, nuts, and granola bars, 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!
- People came to this activity from all over the region. 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!
- Participants demonstrated a high level of engagement, ambition, and enthusiasm regarding the impact of the invasive species removal efforts, and an excitement to return to the site to see the native wildflowers and young native trees flourishing!
What Community Members are Saying
Community Investment Partner
A huge THANK YOU to UVic’s Office of Campus Planning and Sustainability for partnering with our charity, Green Teams of Canada, and making this activity possible with their financial support and direction!
Together we are achieving our common goals and creating connected, healthy and resilient communities engaged in environmental stewardship.
In-Kind Support
A big thank you to our in-kind supporters: Tru Earth and Green Beaver for providing their eco-friendly and health-focused products to our community participants to take home. 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 bring high-quality community activities to you. Partnership building, fundraising, outreach, social media, activity logistics, leading on-the-ground, reporting on impacts and more – they do it all!
Leading activities on the ground is Kaitlin Warren, Program Manager for the Greater Victoria Green Team, whose positive energy and passion for creating change inspire participants to take further action. Kaitlin is supported behind the scenes by Lyda Salatian, GTC Executive Director and Founder.
Together the Green Teams of Canada staff are fostering communities of environmental stewards and contributing to a brighter, greener future for all.