The Greater Victoria Green Team spent the day engaging 13 community members at Ocean View Park in an area covered with invasive species. We primarily removed English Ivy, with some Holly and Daphne removed as well. The invasive species have been growing all the way up the trees and threatens them growing in this beautiful forest! English Ivy can grow up to 9 feet in a year, and can grow up to 40 ft vertically on a tree or building! By cutting a section of ivy off the bottom of the tree, all the ivy above that point will die, and the tree will be safe! We also cleared 1m of ivy around the tree to ensure that it will not grow back any time soon. Some of the native species we saw in the area were Oregon Grape, Trailing Blackberry, Snowberry and Oceanspray!

THANK YOU

Thank-you to everyone for participating: Chad, Audrey, Carter, Sara, Mason, Helena, Jayson, Warwick, Juli, Kaitlin, Meaghan, Peter, Dallin, and the whole GVGT staff team!

Thank-you very much to City of Colwood for partnering with us and contributing to our Green Team activities and for recognizing the importance of collaboration in community engagement and ecological restoration!

Group Photo!

Highlights

• In total 13 community members participated and contributed to 40 volunteer hours!
• 8 volunteers were introduced to Ocean View Park, while 7 volunteers had never removed invasive species before!
• We removed 9.5 cubic metres of invasive plants and restored 250 square metres of forest floor!
• It was Ali’s last activity as Program Manager, and we had all Greater Victoria Green Team staff on deck for a great last run!

Before and After Photos

This activity not only benefitted the environment, but also the participants themselves. By being out in nature doing something positive as a team, our community members:

• Develop a sense of belonging to community and place
• Have improved mental and physical health
• Connect to nature, which leads to environmentally responsible behaviour
• Learn about local environmental issues and actions they can take
• Learn the value of bringing together people to work towards a common goal
• Become leaders in their communities
• Increase confidence, resilience and perseverance

Volunteer Testimonials

“It helps our community parks and native species; it provides a sense of community with other people; it also provides a feeling of contributing something positive to our environment and doing a small yet impactful and easy to see action in the face of the climate emergency” – Sara

Action Shots

Thank you to Level Ground Coffee, Ed’s Shoup Shack, Green Beaver Co., TruEarth for donating In-Kind gifts for our hard working volunteers to enjoy!