Thank you so much Lower Mainland Green Teamers for joining us for this activity:
Adelle, Amanda, Amos, Anim, Barb, Ed, Emma, Fairy Wei, Gary, Graycen, Hannah, Hong, Jagdeep, James, Jan, Jie, Kelsey, Kim Haiyan, Marco, Michael C., Michael Z., Ramandeep, Roger, Rohini, Shelley, Stephen, Tibor & Viresh!
We spent the morning immersed in a beautiful urban forest enjoying the sounds and fresh smell of rain, all while working alongside great people to make a positive impact. What an amazing day continuing our efforts to restore this park!
Keep reading for our impacts, highlights and more from the day…
Impacts
- 28 community members engaged
- 12 people visited Ruth Johnson Park for the first time
- 9 people removed invasive plants for the first time
- 91.5 hours contributed to habitat restoration
- 3 cubic metres of invasive Small balsam were removed (equivalent to the volume of 18 bathtubs!)
- 167 square metres of habitat revitalized
Highlights
- This was our 4th activity at Ruth Johnson Park in 2024 to continue our ongoing restoration efforts at this urban forest
- Read about our last activity on May 25 removing invasive ivy and holly in a different area of the park HERE
- It was very satisfying to make bouquets of Small balsam, a small but easy to remove invasive plant that spreads quickly and prevents new native plants from growing
- We found baby maple trees growing underneath the Small balsam! Thanks to our work, these maples now have the chance to continue to grow.
- Check out the last photo in the before/after slides above!
- Community members joined us from across the Lower Mainland, including from White Rock, Surrey, Maple Ridge, New Westminster, Burnaby, North Vancouver & Port Moody!
- People of all ages, backgrounds, abilities & experience levels came out including families, students, working professionals, retirees, first timers, & returning LMGTers
- We enjoyed hearing the sounds of rain in the forest and breathing in fresh forest smells!
- We got to take a break and refuel with yummy snacks including fresh veggies, vegan brownies and lapis (a coconut jelly dessert)!
- Special thank you to:
- Anim for arriving early to help with set up
- Viresh for making homemade lapis for everyone to enjoy at our snack break
- Fairy and Lyda for helping to set up & pack up our snacks
- Anim, Michael, Amos and Roger for helping pack up our van
- Everyone who joined us for their teamwork and enthusiasm throughout the day!
Community Investment Partner
THANK YOU to the City of White Rock for providing the financial support and direction to make this activity possible!
Together we are achieving our common goals and creating connected, healthy and resilient communities engaged in environmental stewardship.
This was the 5th of 7 activities we are organizing with the City of White Rock this year!
Our next activity in White Rock will be a litter cleanup along Marine Drive on Sunday July 28th from 9:45am-1pm. Keep an eye on our Meetup Page for this activity to be posted very soon!
In-Kind Support
Thank you to the fantastic local eco-friendly businesses, Green Beaver,and Honey Candles, that donated products for our hard-working community members to take home!
Please contact LMGT Program Manager, Ashton Kerr, if you are interested in providing in-kind or have suggestions for businesses to contact.
Why We Do This Work
The Lower Mainland 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
Lower Mainland Green Team Program Manager, Ashton Kerr, and Program Coordinator, Andrea Robles, work hard behind the scenes to bring these high-quality activities to you.
Partnership building, fundraising, outreach, social media, activity logistics, leading on-the-ground, reporting on impacts and more – they can do it all!
Our Founder and Executive Director, Lyda Salatian, has done an excellent job leading and laying the foundation for our organization to do what we do. She stopped by to join us for the second half of this activity!