Thank you so much Greater Victoria Green Team participants for your hard work and enthusiasm:
Aarav, Ahmad, Alanah, Alexander, Alicia-Marie, Ana, Angie, Blythe, Chantal, Chloe, Chuhan, Diana, Doris, Ella, Ellie, George, Geoliang, Hanni, Hansen, Helen, Henry, Hiroko, Jaden, Jasper, John, Josephine, Kate, Kirsty, Leia, Lila, Marin, Mark, Max, Meng, Muen, Noel, Owen, Presley, Raisul, Ran, Seoyoon, Stephanie, Stephane, Tim, xing, Yufei, Yuhan, Yuhuan, and Yvonne!
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 community members engaged
- 160 hours contributed to habitat restoration
- 17 people removed invasive plants for the first time
- 23 people visited the West Campus Greenway for the first time
- 17 cubic metres (about 106 bathtubs full) of ivy, holly, and daphne laurel removed
- 140 square metres of habitat revitalized
Highlights
- We spent the day removing invasive plants such as English ivy from the forest along the edge of West Campus Greenway at the University of Victoria.
- We had an absolutely perfect day, enjoying some nourishing sunlight while we worked together to improve the health of the forest.
- 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 as a team pulling many ivy strands and felt such a rewarding sense of accomplishment saving trees by removing the ivy from them!
- We had a fun spirited competition to see who could pull out the longest strand of ivy, of which Tim was the winner! Congratulations Tim!
- We had fun playing skip rope with the long ivy strands we pulled out of the ground! Check out the videos of community members skipping on Flickr
- Everyone loved the homemade brownies, chocolate chip cookies, fresh fruit and veggies, gummies, nuts, and granola bars to help keep energy levels up!
- We also enjoyed hot chocolate and mint tea to help warm our hands as it was a crisp, cool December day – especially in the morning!
- Community members helped us out at the end with packing up: thank you for your help!
- Community members enjoyed the additional education provided by our plant signs, learning about identification in a fun, creative way!
- 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!
- The volunteers demonstrated a high level of engagement, ambition, and enthusiasm regarding the impact of the invasive species removal efforts, expressing enthusiasm to return to the area again soon!
What Community Members are Saying
Community Investment Partner
A huge THANK YOU to UVic 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: Honey Candles, Blume, Myni, & 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 Viloka. 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
Greater Victoria Green Team Program Manager, Kaitlin Warren and Partnerships Manager, Viloka Luna work hard behind the scenes to bring these high-quality activities to you.
Partnership building, outreach, social media, activity logistics, leading on-the-ground, reporting on impacts and more – they can do it all!