This activity was organized in partnership with the City of Pitt Meadows
Thank you to all of the community members who joined us!
Alison, Amelia, Angela, Ashley, Carrie, Connor, Debra, Dianne, Emma, Gary, Jan, Jason, John, Jordyn, Finn, Joshua, Kathleen, Kevin, Kurtis, Lavon, Lizette, Navraj, Naya, Nicholas, Oliva, Prabhnoor, Rebecca, Ryan, Ryoko, Fern, Shane, Shantelle, Stuart, Tarrah, Tatsuya, Tricia, Tristan, & Zetta!
Community Impacts
38 community members were engaged, contributing 120 hrs to environmental action!
- 47% visited Hoffmann Park for the first time
- 21% removed invasive plants for the first time
29 participants completed a survey, and results showed:
- 86% felt inspired to take future environmental action
- 97% felt a sense of belonging & connection to others
- 97% felt their well-being improved
- 97% said time spent in nature contributed
- 93% said helping the environment contributed
- 97% increased their understanding of environmental issues
- 100% gained practical knowledge (e.g. impacts of invasive species)
- 90% developed new skills (e.g. teamwork & hands-on stewardship action)
Change starts with people. To have a lasting environmental impact, people need to feel connected, capable and empowered to take action.
Our activities are designed to increase:
- Community resilience & social connection
- Well-being through time in nature
- Participation in climate & environmental action
- Awareness of environmental issues
- Connection to local places & natural areas
- A culture of volunteerism & civic engagement
Environmental Impacts
- 15.5 cubic metres of invasive English ivy, English holly, Himalayan Blackberry, and Periwinkle was removed (equivalent to the volume of 97 bathtubs!)
- 500 square metres of habitat were revitalized!
Highlights
- Community members joined us from across the Lower Mainland including from Pitt Meadows itself, Maple Ridge, Port Coquitlam, Surrey, Burnaby, New Westminster, Langley, Delta, Abbotsford, and Chilliwack!
- Environmental & social issues don’t have borders. By bringing together people from across the region, participants see others showing up to care for places beyond their own neighbourhoods. This reminds us that we share responsibility for the people & places around us, and that we’re all in this together.
- We learned about invasive plants but also the native plants we were creating space for including False Lily of the Valley, Sword Fern, and Salmonberry that were thriving in areas we worked to revitalize last year!
- Several community members passed by and thanked us for our hard work to help steward Hoffmann Park!
- Tristan pulled out a length of Ivy that was about 50ft long! He also found this Redworm in the woods and moved it to a safe place!
- Pitt Meadows City Councilor Alison Evans joined us to share her thanks for the community members coming together and worked hard throughout the activity tearing up that invasive Ivy!
- The Langley Squad teamed up to tackle a big patch of invasive Periwinkle – check out the before and after of their work!
- We removed any litter we came across in the understory including plastic wrappers, water & beer bottles, a pack of cans, and this old folding lawn chair!
- Jordyn joined us with our youngest participant of the day, Finn, who is 1.5 years old!
- Jason & Kevin made ripping out an English Holly root look easy, the key to preventing regrowth of this invasive plant!
- Many delicious snacks were enjoyed during our snack break, including fresh grapes, blueberries, & carrots, brownies, yogurt passionfruit gummies, a spicy fava bean mix, & more!
- Special thank you to:
- Liz & Fern who arrived early, helped with setup and got right to trimming some invasive Holly!
- Jan, Amelia, Tristan, & Emma who helped set up our snack break!
- Kurtis, Connor, Jan, Gary, Tarrah, Zetta, Liz, & Ashley who all helped pack up at the end of the activity!
- Tarrah for helping with our in-kind gifts at the end of the activity!
- People of all ages, backgrounds, abilities and experience levels came out including families, students, working professionals, retirees, first timers, returning LMGTers and newcomers!
- We’ve been working at Hoffmann Park since 2023! Check out past activities below:
What Community Members Said
30 participants shared what this activity meant to them:
Video of Pitt Meadows City Councilor Alison Evans, speaking about the huge community impact, the appreciation from local residents, and the connections people found at our activity!
Video of Carrie, a daily visitor to Hoffmann Park, talking about meeting new people and being inspired by all the young community members taking environmental action!
Video of Ashley, speaking about joining us for the second time and having a great time again connecting with her passions while making a difference here!
Video of Zetta & Liz, speaking about the friendly community at our activity, having some delicious snacks, taking some photos, and enjoying their day!
Video of Ryoko, speaking about having a great day pulling out the Ivy and having a tasty snack too!
Community Investment Partner
Delivered in partnership with the City of Pitt Meadows, our Community Investment Partner.
Green Teams of Canada and the City of Pitt Meadows are working together to achieve our shared environmental and community objectives.
The City provides ecological direction, while we bring expertise in community engagement – mobilizing people to take meaningful environmental action and inspiring future stewardship.
This partnership includes financial investment from the City to build connection, improve well-being, and create lasting environmental and community impact.
Special thanks to City staff Olivia & Saphira for their valued contributions in bringing this activity to life!
In-Kind Support
Thank you to the following businesses for providing in-kind to support this activity:
- Lush for providing their bath bombs with natural ingredients, sustainable packaging, and made in Canada!
- OLA Bamboo for providing their bamboo cutlery made in Canada. Their mission is to reduce plastic waste by creating these great bamboo-based, eco-friendly alternatives!
- Gathering Place for providing their fair-trade, organic spices. They are is a family business based in Campbell River, BC. We direct source the best organic spices & more!
When socially and environmentally conscious businesses provide in-kind rewards for our community members, it helps us encourage local and responsible consumption beyond our activities.
Businesses can also further enable us to run high-quality, safe and impactful activities by providing gift cards, refreshments, tools, gloves, and other supplies.
If you’re interested in contributing in-kind or have ideas for potential partnerships, please contact Ashton Kerr.
Staff Who Made This Activity Possible
Our dedicated staff are passionate about community engagement and environmental action. Their work includes extensive outreach, activity logistics, social media, reporting on impacts, partnership building and MUCH more!
This activity was run by Max Muehlen, our Lower Mainland Green Team’s Program Manager with support from Ashton Kerr, the Acting Partnerships & Programs Director.
We Are All In This TOGETHER! The Future Depends on Us
The Lower Mainland Green Team is a program of the charity Green Teams of Canada, engaging communities in hands-on environmental action since 2011.
We bring people together to improve well-being and inspire environmental stewardship. Through activities like invasive plant removal, native species planting, and litter clean-ups, participants take practical action and see the impact they can make.
What sets us apart is our focus on people. Our activities are inclusive and accessible to all ages, abilities and experience levels, especially those new to environmental action. Many join for the first time, deepen their understanding of environmental issues and leave feeling capable and motivated to take future action.
We also strengthen and support the broader stewardship network by working with governmental agencies, non-profits, land trusts, volunteer-led groups, schools, and businesses, bringing new people into existing efforts and expanding their reach. Many participants go on to deepen their involvement, take on leadership roles, or contribute to other initiatives.
We believe lasting environmental change starts with people. By creating meaningful opportunities for people to take part, we help build more connected, resilient communities.
We can all make a difference!