Thank you so much Greater Victoria Green Team participants for your hard work and enthusiasm:
Adam, Amy, Brady, Carole, Cheryl, Chloe, Daxia, Emiko, Hans, Harjot, John, Jordan, Kathy, Logan, Otone, Poyraz, Rob, and Tristan!
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
- 23 community members engaged
- 70 hours contributed to habitat restoration
- 3 people removed invasive plants for the first time
- 10 people visited Murray’s pond Park for the first time
- 10 cubic metres (about 62 bathtubs full) of invasive Scotch broom removed
- 335 square metres of habitat revitalized
Highlights
- We spent the day removing invasive Scotch broom from the entrance of Murray’s Pond Park!
- It was a beautiful spring day and we had a lot of fun connecting with one another in this beautiful park!
- 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.
- Participants enjoyed working together as a team to get out those larger broom plants and felt such a rewarding sense of accomplishment restoring habitat!
- Many community members joined us from the neighbourhood residences, enjoying the satisfaction of cleaning up a park they see all the time that is practically in their backyards!
- 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!
- Everyone loved the homemade brownies, fresh fruit and veggies, nuts, and granola bars to help keep energy levels up!
- Community members demonstrated a high level of engagement, ambition, and enthusiasm regarding the impact of the invasive species removal efforts.
- It was so rewarding to find young garry oak trees, fir trees, and many native shrubs that had been hidden by the pervasive Scotch broom plants!
- This activity marked the end of National Volunteer Week and Volunteer Appreciation Week in the City of Colwood! The City spent the week highlighting and championing the great volunteer work in Colwood by handing out Perk Passes to volunteers. We were able to share some Perk Passes with the participants of this activity. Volunteers are able to visit local businesses and receive small gifts and discounts throughout Volunteer Week as a celebration of community volunteer efforts!
Sponsor & Community Investment Partner
We sincerely thank our sponsor, PATH Developments for their financial support, which have made a significant impact on both our community members and the environment!
Through this sponsorship we have been able to host additional activities in the Royal Bay area of Colwood, increasing community engagement & education and improving the health of the greenspaces in Royal Bay!
Together we are creating opportunities for community members to come together, connect with each other and nature, and take care of the environment!
We sincerely thank the City of Colwood for 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 supporters: Green Beaver for providing their eco-friendly Maple Syrup flavoured lip balm and to Earth Rated for providing recycled dog poop bags for our community participants to take home. These Canadian 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!
Kaitlin, the Greater Victoria Green Team’s Program Manager, led this activity with support from Jace our Greater Victoria Green Team’s new Program 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!
