Wet and muddy fall weather isn’t stopping Greater Victoria Green Team volunteers from making a difference, by getting their hands dirty.
“It’s a nice way to reclaim invasive ecosystems, get some native trees planted out there and it feels great,” volunteer Kai Richins says.
The University of Victoria student started volunteering with the non-profit five years ago, planting trees and doing invasive species pulls.
“At UVic we’ve done some amazing work, we’ve moved almost all of the blackberries from this one little area and we’re going to plant some native species there,” Kai says.
The Greater Victoria Green Team, which gets funding from the Victoria Foundation, is part of Green Teams Canada and works to connect people and build awareness around environmental stewardship.
“Through these events, people meet each other and meet their neighbours and they start to learn about why all these kinds of efforts make a difference in our community in terms of climate change, in terms of biodiversity,” explains Victoria Green Team program manager Karlis Hawkins.
With climate change such a big concern, organizers say it’s empowering for people to be able to do something to help — like a recent tree planting event in Sidney that saw more than 30 trees added.
“A lot of environmental news can be quite bleak but when you follow it up with some action, it really can make a difference and make people feel positive about their impact on the world,” Karlis says.
For Alex Dolman, who’s been volunteering for just over a year, it’s about getting out in nature and making our community better.
“I just like to get involved,” Alex says. “I use the parks and l like to get outdoors and to make the spaces better. I get satisfaction from that — just seeing the difference I’ve made.”
And all of the volunteers are making a big difference in our local parks and green spaces.
“We’ll see them every week or every other week, and it’s amazing how much time they’re putting towards these kinds of efforts,” says Karlis. We’ve engaged 10,000 volunteers since 2014 with the Greater Victoria Green Team.”
For many volunteers, the biggest reward is seeing the transformation over time.
“It happens slowly, but seeing the progress you make weekend to weekend, event to event is really cool to see,” says Alex.
“It’s really cool to actually come back to these locations and see the change I’ve done with the group of people I was working with,” adds Kai.
The Greater Victoria Green Team, which gets funding from the Victoria Foundation, is part of Green Teams Canada and works to connect people and build awareness around environmental stewardship. (CHEK News)
Tess van Straaten
