The Greater Victoria Green Team engaged 29 community members at the Queenswood Campus of University of Victoria. We primarily removed Daphne, Holly, English Ivy and Common Periwinkle removed as well. The invasive species have been growing all over the forest floor, putting the natural biodiversity of the forest at risk. English Ivy grows up the trees and threatens them, and can kill trees in 10-15 years! 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! 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: Colin, Lauren, Jason, Christina, Stephanie, Linbotao, Maggie, Andrew, Cindy, Gill, Chloe, Christine, Madeleine, Chloe, Mia, Jalen, Elena, Andie, Dianne, Tracy, Nisa, Ramisa, Xiulan, Xiangmei, Wanda, Yu, Joel, Hong, Houtian

Thank-you very much to the Office of Campus Planning and Sustainability, University of Victoria 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 29 volunteers participated and contributed to 94 volunteer hours!
• 22 volunteers were introduced to the Queenswood Campus, while 21 volunteers had never removed invasive species before!
• We removed 3.5 cubic metres of invasive plants!
• We saw many deer wandering in the forest!
• Previous activities at this location
  • May 28, 2022
  • April 9, 2022

Before and After

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

“The community and atmosphere of the event were exactly what I was looking for! And the impact is capacity building: people interested in these kinds of activities are able to learn more, get hands-on experience, and are able to connect with other people that have similar interests.” – Jalen

“The impact of this program is that it spreads awareness of the condition of nature right around us and what we can do to keep it pristine” – Wanda

Action Shots

Thank you to Tru Earth, Green Beaver, Level Ground Coffee and Ed’s Soup shack for providing In-Kind Gifts to our community !