The Greater Victoria Green Team spent the day engaging 10 community members at Peter Grant Park in a gorgeous forest trail beside Reay Creek!

We primarily removed English Ivy, English Laurel, and English Holly. These invasive species have been growing across the forest floor and sometimes even smothering trees. 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 Trailing Blackberry, Snowberry and Oceanspray.

We are returning to this same location in two weeks to plant trees! By clearing away invasive species first, we’ll be giving the incoming trees the best possible chance to survive and flourish.

THANK YOU

Thank-you to everyone for participating: Akari, Peter, Robin, Chloe, Thadd, Andrew, Miki, Jason, Satsuki, and Kaitlin! Thank you as well to Cliff Halliday from Town of Sidney for joining us today!

Thank-you very much to Town of Sidney 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 10 community members participated and contributed to 31 volunteer hours!
• 9 volunteers were introduced to Peter Grant Park, while 4 volunteers had never removed invasive species before!
• We removed 8 cubic metres of invasive plants and revitalized about 150 square metres of forest!
• We found and disassembled a massive English Laurel tree!

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

“I appreciated that the area we cleared would be planted with native species and that there is a lot of thinking going on of how we need to plant for our future climate. I found this interesting.” – Peter

“I enjoyed working together with others to improve the community, meeting other like minded folk!” – Jason

Action Shots

Volunteers Enjoying In-kind Gifts from Green Room Body Co, Level Ground, & Lush!