Invasive Species Removal at UVic Queenswood Campus, May 14, 2023!
The Greater Victoria Green Team spent the day engaging 40 community members from all over the Greater Victoria region to remove invasive English ivy, Daphne, English holly, Scotch broom, periwinkle, and Himalayan blackberry at UVic’s Queenswood Campus! This was our 11th visit to this location.
Group Photo!
Highlights
- In total 40 community members participated and contributed a total of 125 volunteer hours!
- We removed 17 cubic metres of invasive plants and revitalized about 500 square metres of the forest!
- 32 community members were introduced to this location for the very first time!
- 20 people learned about and removed invasive plants for the very first time!
THANK YOU
Thank you to everyone for participating: Aaron, Azadeh, Chiming, Christopher, Colin, Daniel, Daniil, Deanna, Erick, Gabby, Guoliang, Hannah, Honomi, Hyoseon, Jane, Joey, John, Kai, Kaito, Kalum, Kaye, Kitty, Mari, Naoki, Peter, Poomravee, Rob, Rocco, Sammi, Sarah, Sophia, Teja, Theresa, Tina, Trevor, Tsuyoshi, Warren, Yuri, Yvonne, and Zoe!
Thank-you very much to the UVic office of Campus Planning and Sustainability for partnering with us and contributing to our Green Team activities! Thank you for recognizing the importance of collaboration in community engagement and ecological restoration!
Invasive species like English Ivy, Daphne, English Holly, Scotch broom, periwinkle, and Himalayan Blackberry have been crowding and shading out the native understory and threatening the trees growing on Queenswood Campus. Ivy can smother trees by competing with them for nutrients and light, which makes the trees weaker and more susceptible to fall. This is the Greater Victoria Green Team’s 11th visit to Queenswood Campus, and the difference we’ve made is truly inspiring! Native species like Trailing Blackberry and Oregon Grape are starting to grow in places that used to be covered in ivy.
Equally inspiring is seeing just how many people come out to tackle invasive species in this forest! Community members of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds came together on Sunday to connect with each other and with nature. It is truly amazing to see so many people working together towards a goal, all while having fun and making new friends!
Before… and After!
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 think this program is really educational. We all learned about the disturbance of invasive species in school, but until we see it with our own eyes, we wouldn’t know how big a ‘population’ of invasive species we have in this land. When I looked around, I saw the invasive ivy everywhere, if not for the program, I wouldn’t know they are invasive because there’s so many of them that it just seems normal to see them around.”
Chiming
“I am very happy to join this volunteer . I swear it’s the most inspiring thing that I have done”
Kitty
“I feel this program has a huge impact not only in the environment, but also with the volunteers and people involved. They feel a sense of accomplishment, meet new people, and have time outside”
Hannah
“[I feel the impact is] Helping to restore the natural biodiversity of the landscape, and building a sense of community.”
Christopher
“I feel this program has a huge impact not only in the environment, but also with the volunteers and people involved. They feel a sense of accomplishment, meet new people, and have time outside”
Hannah
Community In Action!
Thank you to the fantastic local eco-friendly businesses LUSH and Tru Earth that donated In-kind products for our hard-working community members to take home!
Our community members took home a thank you gift from one of our in-kind supporters! If you have any suggestions for sustainable/eco-friendly rewards, know of or own a business who would like to provide in-kind to our Green Team, please contact Kaitlin at kaitlin@greenteamscanada.ca
