On Saturday, March 4, 2023, we held the first of our Invasive Pulls as part of our Native Food Forest project. The morning was crisp and cool, but dry (the first raindrop didn’t fall until just as we finished the pull and were cleaning up!). We had 14 volunteers join us, ranging in age from 11-62 years old. For many of them, it was their first time volunteering with us.
After a land acknowledgment and brief introductions, we headed down the Red Alder Trail, to an area we call “the Triangle”. This will be the site of our future native food forest (to be planted in October 2023).
The experienced volunteers got right to work cutting back the Himalayan blackberry and pulling the English ivy. While, Grace Nombrado, Free the Fern President, gave the first time volunteers a brief demo on how to cut the blackberry to about a foot height from the ground (we will be returning at a later pull to dig out the roots). Everyone then got to work and enjoyed a leisurely pull, chatting and getting to know fellow volunteers.
At 11am we stopped for a brief break of hot chocolate, tea and cookies. It was also a nice chance to chat and get to know each other a little better. It was great to see so many new faces, who we hope to see out again next month!
After the break, we headed back for a bit more invasive pulling. By the end of our pull, we had succeeded in clearing 2,520 L of invasives (plus one extra pile that we have yet to account for and dispose in green bins).
Thank you so much to our amazing volunteers: Alicia, Alyha, Annette, Carla, Chinonso, Dimitri, Erin, Grace, Jessica, Joe, Liam, Martin, Nicholas, and Zeyaad.
This event was made possible thanks to funding support from the City of Vancouver Neighbourhood Matching Fund.