Invasive Species Removal in Porcher Park, Langford – November 18, 2023
Highlights From The Day
- 38 amazing members of the community joined us and contributed about 117 volunteer hours!
- Thank you to everyone for participating: Garyfallia, Tyson, Evelyn, Changwen, Mariana, Jeff, Scott, Chris, Leslie, Debra, Aaron, Marguerite, Keito, Jamie, Charlotte, Juri, Mauricio, Cindy, Theo, Olivielle, Cynthia, Tillia, Maria, Aisha, Becca, Kadynce, Amanda, Tristan, Marianne, Jordan, Mary, Carina, Rupert, Roberta, Vincenza, Chloe, Rob, Chukwuyem, Ewere, Elanor, Ron, and Olivia!
- Together our team:
- Removed a volume of 8.5 cubic metres (approximately 53 bathtubs full) of invasive plant material!
- Revitalized about 60 square metres of the park!
- Scroll down to see before and after photos, as well as some in-action shots!
- All ages, backgrounds, and experience levels were engaged including families, returning Green Team volunteers, and first-timers!
- 10 people removed invasive plants for the first time
- 22 people were introduced to this park through this activity
Our Community Investment Partner, the City of Langford, provided direction and funding to make this activity possible!
Before & After Photos!
Why Do We Do This Work?
The Greater Victoria 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!
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
Partner For This Activity
A big thank you to the City of Langford Parks Department for partnering with our charity, Green Teams of Canada and providing the financial support and direction to make this activity possible!
Thank you for recognizing the importance of collaboration in community engagement and ecological restoration! Together we are restoring habitat and creating connected, healthy and resilient communities engaged in environmental stewardship!
Learn more about City of Langford Parks and how to become more involved with them on their website.
This was our first year working in partnership together and we are so grateful to have had the opportunity to engage a total of 89 people in Porcher Park this fall across 3 activities! We are looking forward to working together again in the new year to keep bringing community engagement activities to Langford! Stay tuned on our Meetup page to see where we will work next!
Engaging with the City of Langford!
Thank you so much City of Langford Councillor Mary Wagner for joining us today! We really appreciate your support and had such a great time getting to know you!
Also a big thank you to Jeff from the Langford Resident’s Association for joining us for today’s activity! Thank you for all your help and support!
Community In Action!
What Participants are Saying…
“It’s amazing to see the big difference we made here since we started working in this park!”
Carina
”It’s very important to remove invasive plants so that native plants can grow. It’s also important that people know which plants are native and which plants are not. Before I volunteered for this activity I did not know what St. John’s wort was. Langford really needs another park so I’m very glad to see how much Porcher Park has improved. It’s great to see so many people working hard and working together.”
Vincenza
”The sense of community and collaboration towards this important cause was highly rewarding!”
Robbi
”I was at Porcher Park for the first activity and saw what the park looked like then. The transformation by the end of today’s session has been incredible! The addition of this park to the neighbourhood will be a positive impact on the community and I think it’s so cool that we got to be a part of cleaning it up. I will definitely be visiting this park once it opens in the future and I’m sure other Langford residents who participated in these activities will too!!”
Maria
Thank you to the fantastic local eco-friendly business LUSH 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
Our Staff
This activity was run by our Program Coordinator, Severine (far right)!