14 volunteers (5 joining us for the first time) gathered for our Monthly Invasive Pull on Saturday, January 4, 2025. We gathered at the Douglas Fir Teaching Garden, adjacent to the Red Alder Trail in South East Vancouver.
Grace Nombrado, Free the Fern Executive Director, welcomed everyone with a land acknowledgment. Then, board President, Erin Knock, led a welcome, stretch and safety talk. We then broke up into two groups, with half the volunteers joining Grace to remove Periwinkle and the other half joining Erin to remove Himalayan blackberry regrowing in our food forest.
Periwinkle is an invasive groundcover that often spreads when people dump their hanging baskets and planters in the trail. It smothers all other smaller plants, forming a dense carpet on the forest floor. Luckily, the ground was wet and the soil was loose, so the thin roots of the periwinkle were easy to remove using hands or a small trowel.
We also found a few small invasive Daphne or Spurge Laurel shrubs growing amidst the periwinkle. Daphne is a highly toxic invasive plant, with all parts (leaves, stem, and berries), being toxic to humans and dogs. As few as 2-3 berries have been documented to kill a child. As many famlies frequently walk on the trail, it was very important to remove the toxic Daphne shrubs.
Volunteers also successfully removed all the small Himalayan blackberry sprouts that were regrowing within our food forest. Even though we had planted our food forest over a year ago, we continue to monitor the area for any invasive plant regrowth. It felt great to see the whole food forest clear of any visible invasive plants.
Together, volunteers cleared 660 L of invasive plants from the trail!
We are grateful to all the volunteers who came out and worked so hard to remove the invasive plants. Thank you to: Anne, Antone, Barbara, Erin, Gabriel, Gary, Grace, Haley, Herman, Jeannine, Kelvin, Liam, Nidhi, and Tom.
This event was made possible thanks to generous funding support from Park People.